Manju Chatani, of Health & Development Networks:

"Having teams where journalists, scientists and community representatives work side-by-side has encouraged the transfer of knowledge and skills in both directions."

"For the last five years, Health & Development Networks has been involved in using electronic networking as a means to enhance the response to HIV/AIDS. In the last two years, we have also covered International AIDS Conferences using Key Correspondent Teams — mixed teams with journalists and community representatives — to extend the dialogue beyond conference halls. ...

"...Having teams where journalists, scientists and community representatives work side-by-side has encouraged the transfer of knowledge and skills in both directions — where the community reps and scientists are forced to listen and absorb the conference content in a more analytical and objective way, yet report from the focus on their expertise — and the journalists learn more about the perspectives and the relevance [of] the issues to application in the field.

"...These teams and this style of reporting has proved successful and innovative in cutting across the lines that separate media from the practitioners in the AIDS field."
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Michael West, World AIDS Day Coordinator, HIV & Sexual Health Promotion Unit, Northern Sydney Health:

"They can listen to a radio role-play dealing with HIV and trust, in a public space without fear of being perceived as gay or HIV positive."

"These responses are prefaced by the following context. New South Wales (NSW) Health (one government department within one state of Australia) conducts an annual World AIDS Day program (WAD) designed to increase awareness of the issues attendant to HIV/AIDS.

"... Media coverage, or utilizing media as a tool for education/prevention and/or awareness-raising is not a common feature of NSW Health WAD campaigns. No dedicated media officer or media strategy exists to uniformly implement and coordinate WAD efforts across the State. ...

"...[Our] particular media campaign, I believe, is an innovative and positive model — one well worth sharing. Its innovation lies in its narrative approach ... Its innovation is also apparent in the social/cultural dimension embedded within the advertorials. We are seeking to reflect to the reader/audience the (culturally over-determined) behaviors of men. By disguising analysis within narrative we are hoping that the aims of this campaign will be readily digested.

"Media & multimedia are tools that should be increasingly used by health workers, yet this is an area underutilized by most. Campaigns dealing with stigmatized issues such as sexuality, HIV/AIDS and sexual health are perfect content fodder for a variety of media strategies. For example, radio audiences are largely passive and anonymous recipients of information; they do not have to actively decide to pick up an HIV pamphlet at their local GP and fear being seen by a neighbor. They can listen to a radio role-play dealing with HIV and trust, in a public space without fear of being perceived as gay or HIV positive.

"The half-life of a fashionable media story is really quite short and HIV/AIDS is no different. In recent years competing against the likes of breast cancer, skin cancer and mental health, HIV/AIDS has not faired well. It has fallen off the public interest/media agenda. ... AIDS, in Australia at least (in part due to the absence of a comprehensive media strategy) seems to have slipped from the awareness of the next sexually active generation."
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Pamela Brooke, The Story Workshop:

"We are in partnership discussions here with [the Canadian International Development Agency] (CIDA) and Soul City for a new media campaign linked to Soul City's educational materials for AIDS. We are also in discussions with Cordaid regarding adding another weekly episode to our popular soap opera, "Zimachitika," to combat the social barriers here in Malawi that contribute to the massive denial in the country. Currently, our own contribution is to attack some of the attitudes that make the silence hard to crack during our current weekly "Zimachitika" play sponsored by European Commission for food security. ... We are also about to release our first "Zimachitika" comic book, which is a story about two teenage AIDS orphans with educational activities to help others here cope.

Aside from these initiatives of our own, we have not been formally contracted with to produce AIDS media, but can tell you that we watch the newspapers everyday to see how AIDS is reported. There is lots of 'talk-talk' about it, but nobody has really captured the emotions or the imagination of the public to provoke a hard look at the behavior and attitudes that perpetuate it...."
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Marina Mahathir, President, Malaysian AIDS Council:

"The TV dramas, which reach a large segment of the population, have been particularly successful"

"Allow me to try and respond to your request on behalf of my organization, the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC). We are an umbrella organization for 33 NGOs working in HIV/AIDS in Malaysia, and our main focus is on coordination, capacity-building and advocacy on behalf of our affiliates and PLWHAs [People Living With HIV and AIDS].

"HIV/AIDS has been getting increasing coverage in Malaysian media in recent years, both of the local and global epidemic. This can be attributed to efforts by the MAC, [including]: training workshops ... getting coverage for AIDS events ... assisting TV producers to develop topics for their talk shows that are related to HIV/AIDS ... motivating the media with the introduction of the Red Ribbon Media Awards in 1996. ...

"... It must be said that while we have developed good relationships with reporters who cover health issues and this has resulted in better coverage, sometimes this is sabotaged by other reporters who might cover news or who write on other issues such as crime. ... This shows that all reporters need to be sensitized about HIV/AIDS, not just those working the health beat. ...

"The topic of HIV/AIDS is also now of great interest to those who produce TV dramas, movies and music. We have had many requests for 'technical' assistance on these productions, which generally involves vetting scripts to ensure that the information on HIV/AIDS is accurate and that negative stereotypes about marginalized groups are eliminated. The TV dramas, which reach a large segment of the population, have been particularly successful. ...

"... One problem we always have with the media is that they are mostly interested in human-interest stories and this involves interviewing PLWHAs. While we have had a few PLWHAs who were willing to be interviewed ... this pool is still too small and not diverse enough. We have a major problem in getting more PLWHAs to agree to be interviewed, especially women, and this has meant that sometimes we are unable to fulfil requests for interviews. ..."
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Judith Soal, Health Reporter, Cape Times:

"You can't expect the media to simply play the role of Aids educators"

"Unfortunately much of the attention on AIDS in South Africa has been sidetracked by the debate raised by President Thabo Mbeki on the origins of AIDS. In some ways this has raised the profile of the disease, but it has also spread confusion. It's hard for the media to explain the complexity of the scientific issues to readers (it's hard for the scientists to explain this complexity in ways that reporters can explain), and so much of the coverage has been reduced to politics. ...

"... I'm a journalist so perhaps I see things slightly differently from most of your respondents. I know that you can't expect the media to simply play the role of AIDS educators. We are all hard pressed to get our stories into print or onto air. There's no way the commercial media can devote heaps of space to AIDS intervention. A typical editor's quote will be: "I don't want worthy, give me sexy." That's what so many NGOs don't seem to understand. They think that just because the issues are so important we should be running educational stories every day.

"Of course there is a way round this, we need angles. Nothing could have put the generics/treatment-access issue more firmly on the South African agenda than when a local AIDS activist went to Thailand and brought back generic medication that is sold for almost 10 times as much here. This is news. Holding meetings and complaining about drug prices and pharmaceutical companies isn't nearly as effective. Also, the press always want concrete examples. So, on the same theme, if organizations can provide a list of drug prices in say, Brazil, compared to the United States and South Africa, it will be so much more effective that just saying that drugs are cheaper in other countries.

"I think organizations need to hone their media skills to make the message attractive to journalists. And they need to stop treating journalists with disdain (especially scientists) as though we are part of the problem and will never really understand. Even if the media culture rubs governments and educators the wrong way, it would be so much more effective to provide us with story angles and be honest about successes and failures.
READ THE FULL COMMENT

Charlene Smith:

"We as the media in South Africa should be ashamed of our shocking failures when it comes to reporting AIDS. "

"... The news media are generally shockingly inept in reporting [on] the worst crisis our nation has ever faced. They are either alarmist, most do no research, and they rely on oft repeated "truths," they do very little focussing on positive interventions or community work, they give people no idea how to manage the virus, or we take political stances instead of the only one that counts — a people oriented stance ... in short, we as the media in South Africa should be ashamed of our shocking failures when it comes to reporting AIDS. We should be doing more research, relying less on the Internet and more on going out into the field and meeting the researchers and scientists, and people infected and affected. It should be a designated "beat" on all forms of media.

"Films, ads, posters and music tend to perpetuate high risk notions about promiscuity, the role of "macho" men and compliant women, etc. ... There is almost zero awareness in advertising campaigns, popular literature and films about AIDS and the necessary behavioral changes, although increasingly TV programs directed at young people are, in a few cases, beginning to display greater responsibility. In the same way that the media need to get out of the office and go to sources, the same applies to health, social workers and NGOs — don't wait for the media to find you, or go to you, go to them. Don't rely on faxes and e-mails, offer to show good journalists around projects. Have good information on hand.
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Dr. Ranjith Batuwanthudwe:

"[There is] very updated news from other International agencies and Internet, copied in local media, both print and electronic media. More in English and [to a] lesser extent in local language, Sinhala. Not much on global pandemic but, to some extent, modes of transmission/non-transmission data are clear, but pathophysiology is not highlighted/clear. [There is] much confusion on estimated and reported number of HIV/AIDS cases.

"Yes, [there are public communication campaigns] most propelled by NGO's, whose funding and activities are of questionable nature. Ministry of Health and its Health Education Bureau and the National HIV/AIDS campaign are doing some publicity work. Several TV channels, one English daily newspaper (The Island) and one Sinhala daily (Lankadeepa) carry daily caption and ads on HIV/AIDS prevention."
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Margo Caulfield, Twin States Network, Director-SPRC, Information Director-HIVNet:

"When they go to movies, watch TV or even read teen magazines, it's an incredible exploitation of sex"

"The media has a very crucial role in the social marketing of HIV or promoting its prevention. ...

"... A very crazy world exists for our youth. On the one hand, many schools, parents and other groups are discussing HIV and STDs. However, when they go to movies, watch TV or even read teen magazines, it's an incredible exploitation of sex. ...

"... Social marketing has largely gone unexplored in the United States as a strategy which could make a difference in preventing the spread of HIV. Yet we know that the American community is heavily based on keeping up with the Joneses. If the perception is that the average college students only drink one beer at a party, we see drinking go down on college campuses. ...

"... Within the adult entertainment industry, there are a core group of individuals (Nina Hartley, Candice Royale, Annie Sprinkle) who have been only making videos which include safer sex practices. However, the cost of these videos are in the range of $29-$49, whereas many of the regular porno films, which don't include safer sex practices or make any mention of it, sell for $7-$15."
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Ben Gardiner, Founder and operator of AIDS Info BBS:

"We literally typed up copies of scraps found in newspapers and on flyers."

"From the very start, media coverage of AIDS has been very poor in my city area. The one exception was The Wall Street Journal, a national financial newspaper, which, surprisingly, printed significant stories about AIDS frequently.

"Other publications have printed mainly rewritten or paste-ups of press releases issued by doctors or by pharmaceutical companies. And these half-baked stories get echoed back and forth until everyone seems to believe them.

"There certainly are public communication campaigns in my area. At first they were useful and informative, but in recent years they have become both misleading and unhelpful. ...

"You may be surprised to learn that my neighborhood is the Castro section of San Francisco, often called the cradle of AIDS since some of the first cases were found here back in 1981. I started the AIDS Info BBS in 1985 because there was at that time no reliable media outlet or forum for communication in this area of California, U.S.A. It published the very few articles that had appeared, and it reported on meetings and verbal statements made by individuals. There was nothing else. We literally typed up copies of scraps found in newspapers and on flyers."
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Ann Sternberg, Assistant Director, Health, Media and Marketing Group, NYC Department of Health:

"Funding for campaigns has been reduced, resulting in limited media interventions, particularly in broadcast media exposure."

"The following represents my views as a developer of HIV/AIDS media in New York City for the past eleven years; my perspective is personal and not necessarily shared by the NYC Department of Health.

"... At the time of early AIDS media, there were no treatments, and AIDS was perceived as a death sentence. Most messages were directed at identifying the means of transmission and methods of prevention.

"In the ensuing years, both the epidemiology and the treatment approaches to AIDS have changed ... as have the public education campaigns. In the United States we are beyond salience, beyond generic education efforts; media campaigns are specifically targeted to specific at-risk communities, from gay men of color to infected pregnant women. ... But funding for campaigns has been reduced, resulting in limited media interventions, particularly in broadcast media exposure.

"Ten years or more have passed since the earliest media attention in the United States, and the result appears to be apathy in the general public ... and the media. Even reports of AIDS genocide in Africa and parts of Asia do not receive the interest or attention they merit ... and [we] need to seek opportunities to research and discover resolution of these crises.

"Has there been success in public education campaigns?

"Some. The general public is better informed and less biased against those infected with HIV/AIDS. Discussions of safer sex and needle exchange are more common throughout most cultural communities. But, it's difficult to assess whether those discussions and that awareness has resulted in behavior changes ... and reduced incidence of infection."
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George M. Carter:

"The media here are obsessed with a self-absorption that is nearly impenetrable"

"I live in the United States. The media here are obsessed with a self-absorption that is nearly impenetrable. But occasional flashes of recognition that there is a world beyond do from time to time pierce the veil of fat-and-happy onanism that characterizes the American media.

"Specifically, however, the issue that largely gets ignored is the legal right ... of countries to invoke a compulsory license or undertake parallel importing in order to access HIV medications for a much lower cost. ... The need for significant contributions ... along with debt relief [is ignored] ... The plight of HIV-positive individuals in prisons both here and abroad is ignored. ... Sex workers are a taboo subject. Let alone their clients. ...

"... The role of the United States and the European Union in perpetuating [the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo] is also ignored by mainstream media. ... [And] the lives of millions in Africa are written off because of some twisted notion that intellectual property rights trump human life. ... Another serious issue that is given a short shrift is recognizing the serious adverse events and toxicities associated with the use of antiretroviral therapy (ARV), let alone the many different ways these could be offset, minimized, prevented or managed. This leads to a third issue, to wit, that very little focus on dietary supplements (i.e., vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, etc.) is provided that isn't somehow biased toward either how perfect they are by the industry or how worthless they are by the medical bigots. The voices of consumers who use them and are demanding better clinical studies are lost in this cheap polemic that ultimately fails to give a rational assessment of benefits, risks, limitations and costs."
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Joanna Conti, President, Alliance for Youth Achievement, Inc.:

"I can tell you that whatever they are doing is not getting the message out"

"...Time after time, the people I talk to are shocked about the magnitude of the AIDS crisis. I have met VERY few people who are informed about how catastrophic this epidemic is in other parts of the world. Americans have developed a complacency about the epidemic due to the availability of antiretroviral drugs here, and have almost no knowledge about conditions in the developing world.

"So, while I can't answer your specific questions about how the media is covering the epidemic, I can tell you that whatever they are doing is not getting the message out." READ THE FULL COMMENT