Health reporting in the South African media is often under-resourced and journalists with little experience in health struggle to deal with the technically and socially dense topic of HIV in the face of tight deadlines. This often results in low-quality HIV reporting, or worse, contributes to the perception that HIV is not worthy of comprehensive coverage.

Anova provides support to journalists and the popular media in dealing with HIV through the HIV & AIDS Media Project, which is funded by Johns Hopkins Health and Education South Africa. In partnership with the Wits Journalism Programme, Anova is monitororing and comment on HIV news coverage as well as provide the media with training and support to ensure that the important issue of HIV is never “old news”.

The project’s weekly round-up and analysis of HIV-related news via its newsletter has also proved vital in communicating with media practitioners and stakeholders and is sent to over 700 subscribers on a weekly basis.

The project provides real-time support to media practitioners through the journAIDS hotline. More recently the project has expanded its activities into the realm of popular media, having been approached by local soap operas for consultation on HIV-related storylines and characters.

The HIV & AIDS Media Project’s website, journAIDS.org, also acts as a resource portal for media practitioners and is designed to guide journalists through the complexities of HIV through the provision of information on various dimensions of the virus and its effects.

The project has published various booklets and documents over the years, and in 2010, the project released a compilation of the journalism and research it has produced since 2003, titled: What is Left Unsaid: Reporting South Africa’s HIV epidemic.