The media and HIV/AIDS

Among the many topics debated at the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban last week, the role of the media was perhaps one that did not get the coverage that it deserved. Many AIDS activists argued at the conference that the media has in general tended to focus on the more negative and pessimistic findings that virtually eliminated the positive. “So far, much of the reporting has bogged the public down with articles about statistics. Of course it is important for people to know about the statistics, but it is also important for them to know about the positive advances that are being made,” an AIDS activist told IRIN. “Positive advances such as the fact that in some countries the HIV infection rate is levelling off and in countries like Uganda, through extremely effective education programmes, new HIV infection has declined. Maybe issues such as these just aren’t juicy enough,” she said. Activists were also concerned that the mainstream media was not taking its role seriously enough, especially in relation to the educative aspects of its work. “They have to be careful that they don’t reinforce the stigmatism that so many HIV positive people face. They need to move beyond the notion that they are simply there to report on what is happening in an unbiased objective way. AIDS is a threat to all of us and one cannot be objective about it. Media have a responsibility to get people to begin to take ownership of the disease,” a young activists from Zambia told IRIN. “The media can go a long way in giving a human face to a disease that has so far been seen in terms of numbers. People tell a story numbers don’t,” she added. There was a notable absence of journalists from Africa at the Durban conference. Those that did attend were for the most part working for international media organisations. That, African journalists said, dictated the kind of coverage they gave the conference. A journalists from Tanzania told IRIN that the kinds of issues the African press report should have relevance to their audience and would necessarily be different from the mainstream media. “Of course we should let people know about the latest drug treatments and studies, but if they can’t afford it what is the use? Instead I think we should look at issues such as stigmatism, violence against women who are HIV positive, the plight of children and coping and living with the disease in an under-resourced environment. These are issues that affect millions of Africans daily,” he said. “We also have to think about ways of informing people. The challenge is to give them information that is relevant to their lives. We have to get off the fence. We have to take a proactive stance in reporting about and helping African people deal with HIV/AIDS,” he added. He told IRIN that he had chosen to focus on topics and issues that he thought ordinary Tanzanians would be interested in: “But my editor looks at BBC and Reuters and says, why aren’t you following that? It doesn’t matter if it is an issue that is of no relevance to African people. The big guys are reporting it so we should too, he thinks”.