The Media and HIV/AIDS

In this letter from the July/August issue of Global AIDSLink, published by the Global Health Council, Maurice Middleberg describes the history of media attention to HIV/AIDS as a "process of trial and error, give and take, [through which] we have come to a place of much greater understanding, collaboration and mutual learning." He notes that historically media coverage of HIV/AIDS was a point of complaint by activists and people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as a point of misunderstanding between journalists and health communicators. He then describes the current state of the media and HIV/AIDS.


According to this letter, in developing countries, journalists currently are expanding coverage to the more controversial issues of injecting drug use, antiretrorival patent conflicts, access to services, and AIDS cases among sex workers, and they are writing on these issues in more sensitive language, shifting the focus to people living with HIV from those dying of AIDS. The author describes the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI), originally a partnership between the United Nations and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which supports GMAI media partners in Russia, China, India, and the Caribbean in the exchange of ideas on educating and informing their audiences about HIV/AIDS. Education and information dissemination take the forms of traditional print and broadcast journalism to mass media entertainment, new electronic media, and community-based youth-run theatre, as well as entertainment education based on theoretical models of behaviour change. Information and communication technology (ITC) is now being used to treat and inform people living with HIV through satellite television, online support, and cellphone text messaging. Youth radio addresses sensitive topics through peer-to-peer stories, debates, and talk shows on issues such as sexuality and parent-child relationships. Street theatre is another medium of youth HIV/AIDS activism.


The letter concludes with the Global Health Council perspective of supporting more quality media coverage of HIV/AIDS, including "resource requirements, the vast need for prevention programs and services, and the continuing gender inequities in women’s access to information and services....As the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to evolve, health advocates will need to invest time and resources in building and maintaining longterm media relations."


This document is accessible online for members of the Global Health Council. Membership is available on the Global Health Council website.