HIV/AIDS in News – Journalists as Catalysts - United Nations ...

22
HIV/AIDS in News – Journalists as Catalysts
Inspiration, a hope” and “Live Positive”, the features were accompanied by colour photographs
of HIV positive women who had been interviewed and came out openly about
their experiences. Another notable article was a full-page feature in The Economic Times
accompanied by photographs, messages and graphics. It examined the HIV/AIDS epidemic
as the country’s next human resource issue. A selection of four different articles
that focussed on this theme and attractive graphics made it compelling reading.
Several newspapers in both languages carried prominently reports on the new trend of
declaring one’s HIV status before marriage.
A full-page feature in The
Economic Times accompanied
by photographs,
messages and graphics
examined the HIV/AIDS
epidemic as the country’s
next human
resource issue
Reportage on the impact of HIV/AIDS in rural areas was scant in both languages. One
such article in The Deccan Herald, titled ‘Community efforts keep dreaded virus at bay’,
did deal with the spread of the epidemic in villages. Though the headline projects an
alarmist image, the story was a positive account of village elders taking the initiative in
educating the youth on safe sex. Most of the coverage in Kannada appears to have
been generated from handouts, such as two stories on a seminar for HIV positive people
in Mangalore district.
Gender issues
Women and their concerns in dealing with HIV/AIDS were largely missing from the
news, unless it was a feature on HIV positive women’s accounts. Other than this, the
gender perspective has been excluded from all other coverage by the print media.
Tone
The language used was neutral on the whole. It was not disturbing though a few stories
used terminology with insinuations. For instance, terms like naraka yatane were
used twice in the Kannada papers even when the story was positive. Though none of
the reports were disproportionately alarming, the figures reflected the reality of the
spread of the infection. There were references in both categories of the media to the
AIDS scare/deadly disease/tide of the epidemic/the virus continues to ride/dreaded
disease/patients/scourge. Other panic-causing terms included ‘time bomb’,
‘killer/deadly/fatal disease’ and ‘AIDS is making India shiver.’
Most of the photographs were related to events, such as the one accompanying the
candlelight memorial day to honour infected persons who died and photographs relating
to Miss Universe. A notable variation was the photo-only news item in The Deccan
Herald of an infected Mizoram couple with the caption linking their personal story to the
HIV/AIDS situation in the state. Features on the lives of positive women describing
their experiences were accompanied by prominent photographs of them. The photograph
in the New Indian Express of a sand-sculpture of skulls as part of an HIV/AIDS
awareness campaign was disturbing. It created fear and unease that could result in dis-