How Healthy is our News?
HIV/AIDS and the Media - 25 January 2011
The HIV/AIDS & the Media Project and USAID/Johns Hopkins University Programme in South Africa hosted their eighth HIV/AIDS and the Media discussion forum at the Wits Origins Centre on 22 October 2009. At the forum, entitled “How healthy is our news?”, a range of experts and media practitioners gathered to discuss the state of health reporting in South Africa, with particular emphasis on HIV.
Dr. Sindi van Zyl (Anova Health Institute) opened the discussion with a doctor’s thoughts on South African health reporting. Catherine Duncan (Wits) then presented the HIV/AIDS and the Media Project’s latest research which compared the quantity of HIV reporting between 2003 and 2008.
A panel of health journalists responded to these findings, engaging in debate on the current state of health reporting in South Africa. Discussion focused particularly on the constraints imposed on the newsroom by the global economic recession.
The panellists were Mia Malan (Mail&Guardian), Kanya Ndaki (IRIN News) and Kristin Palitza (freelance journalist). Afterwards, the audience was invited to give their opinions and
views and to address questions to the panel, resulting in a lively and fruitful discussion around health reporting.
The forum was chaired by Sue Valentine. This publication is an edited version of the proceedings of the discussion. For a full transcript of the proceedings, copies of presentations and photographs, visit journaids.org