The media and HIV/AIDS: making a difference

This report explores role of the media in the global fight against AIDS. It presents basic information about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, reviews media activities in the past and makes recommendations for future action.

The report’s main argument is that the media have an essential role to play in reversing the progression of HIV. Education to promote awareness of HIV/AIDS is a key factor in the fight against the disease, and clearly, media organisations have an enormous potential to undertake these activities. However, the report also states that doing this with maximum efficiency requires a clear understanding of the challenges and the obstacles to widespread and effective HIV-prevention education. These include:

• widespread lack of awareness: in the cases of some African countries, a large proportion of young people have never heard of AIDS
• the triangle of denial, stigma and discrimination: many people worldwide have not yet accepted that the risk of contracting HIV applies to them. Equally damaging to the effort to disseminate factual information about the epidemic is the belief that HIV/AIDS is something that happens to people who are immoral and socially deviant
• the impact of gender inequality: because women often lack freedom of choice, they sometimes find it harder to avoid HIV infection.

The report concludes that the media should make AIDS programming a key part of their output and, indeed, their corporate strategy. This can be done in a number of ways, including the following:

• giving the epidemic prominent news coverage
• dedicating airtime/space to HIV/AIDS public service messages
• supporting the broadcasting of HIV/AIDS special programming
• supporting the development of AIDS storylines in existing programming
• making public service messages and original programming available to other outlets on a rights-free basis.

[adapted from author]