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Newsroom Leaders
Review

The 2nd Generation

Of HIV/AIDS Coverage

Copyright © 2008 by National Press Foundation

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 The 1st Generation

1981 – 2000

– Scientific understanding
– Increasing clarification of numbers
– Knowledge of
• Vaccines
• Behavior
• Prevention – at least the theory

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 The 2nd Generation
2000 - today
– The Stories
• The impact
– On society
– Business
– Education
• Vulnerable groups
• Prevention
– what works
– what doesn’t work
– what we can’t yet make work

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 Where We Stand Today
A global view of HIV infection
38.6 million people [33.4‒46.0 million] living with HIV, 2005

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2.4
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 The Situation Today
Outside This Newsroom
To make a customized data sheet on your
country, use this link:
• http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/factsheets_cu

Once you’ve gotten the country figures, you

may be able to search out more detailed
and local figures.

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 Let’s say I’m in Kenya
• And I want to compare the prevalence rate
of people with HIV/AIDS with two
neighboring countries.
• I go to this site, and select, “Create a
Custom Data Sheet”
• I enter neighboring countries Ethiopia and
Malawi

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Indicator Date/Date Range Data Type Data

Ethiopia Kenya Malawi

HIV/AIDS

Adult HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rate Global Data, 2007; Country Data, 2005 % 0.9-3.5 6.1% 14.1%

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Everything Outside this
Newsroom
Related to HIV/AIDS …

Is a story waiting to be told

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 Transmission
• Unprotected sexual contact
• IV drug use
• Unsafe clinical environment
• Mother-to-child transmission

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 Prevention
• Condoms – Male or female
• Microbicides
• Limited sexual partners
• Clean needles
• Preventing mother-to-child transmission
• Sterile clinical environments
• male circumcision, for adults

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 Vulnerable People
• Women
– Especially in male-dominant cultures
– In war zones
– Sex workers
• Children
– students
• Medical workers
• Men in risky relationships

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 Vulnerable Groups
• Local communities
• National defense
• Migrant workers
• Agriculture
• Education

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 Language
• The best language seeks to be value-
neutral, so the words don’t get in the way
of our story. For example …
– “person with HIV/AIDS” rather than “AIDS
victim or AIDS sufferer”
– Sex worker, not prostitute
– “contracted HIV…” rather than “became
infected with…”

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 What are the obstacles we face
in covering HIV/AIDS?
• Lack of information • Stigma &
• Ignorance of the facts discrimination
• Lack of interest • Lack of time
– Our own • Lack of official or
– Editors’ editorial support
– Readers/Viewers’ • Denialists
• Fear
Anything else?

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 The Big Logistical Problems
• Most HIV+ don’t know
infected

• Not much $ in vaccines,

microbicides, generics

• Prevention efforts woefully

lacking
• Behavior is hard to change
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“These are some of the ways I’ve
covered HIV/AIDS Stories”
You tell your stories

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 Story Meeting 1

– How do people who are HIV+ feel about

the word “victim”?
– Should sex workers be regulated?
– Do we identify someone who is HIV+?
– Can we follow an HIV+ person as he/she
attempts to get medicine?

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 Story Meeting 2
• Why are men reluctant to use condoms?
• What can we tell readers/viewers about a
female condom?
• How do we report on MSM?
• How do we deal with denialists?
• Do we have an ethical obligation to cover
HIV/AIDS?

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 Story Meeting 3
• What research into HIV/AIDS is being done here in
…
• What about a story about the stress on health
professionals, like nurses, as they deal with
people who are HIV+ and there is no money.

• How do families talk about HIV/AIDS?

– To prevent it
– If someone is living with it

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 What are the ethical questions we
face in doing these stories?

• Do you use • What are the

someone’s real consequences of this
name? this?
• Do you show their • Do you tell them the
picture? potential
consequences?

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 (Your country) is not
alone among the nations

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United States

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China

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Thailand

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Africa

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Ukraine
• Valeria, HIV positive
mother and activist says,
"HIV positive children
should enjoy full rights for
treatment and schooling,
just like other children."

Credit: UNAIDS/WHO/V. Suvorov

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Using Graphs & Charts

Once we ask the question,

why?

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 HIV slows economic growth
Growth Impact of HIV (1990-97) (80 developing countries)
0

-0.2
Reduction in growth rate GDP
per capita (%, per year)

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

-1

-1.2

-1.4

-1.6
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

HIV Prevalence Rate (%)

Source: R. Bonnel (2000) Economic Analysis ofHIV/AIDS, ADF2000 Background paper, World Bank. Slide adapted
from UNAIDS: “Socio-Economic Impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa,” presented by Anita Alban and Lorna Guiness, ADF
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 Ultimately,

Journalism is about people…

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 People with HIV/AIDS
• Portraits of young Russians
and young couples (aged 16-
25) taken during the 5th
Summer Volunteering School
funded in part by UNICEF.
Altai Republic, Russian
Federation, August 2005.

Credit: UNAIDS/S. Drakborg

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 Journalists & HIV+ people
• Lionel Belfar, HIV+
advocate, interviewed by
journalists at J2J AIDS
Conference, Toronto, 2006.
Woman at left, from
Romania, had written about
AIDS for years & never
spoken directly to HIV+
person before.

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Brazil

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 Germany
(one nail for everyone who died that year)

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China

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 “When it comes to AIDS,
journalists can have more of an
impact than doctors”

– Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of

UNAIDS, said this about journalists at a
J2J program in 2002

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 A Few Sources for More
Information
• www.unaids.org • www.aidstruth.org
• http://www.prb.org/ • http://www.globalhealthfac
• www.kff.org
• http://www.unaids.org/en/Regions_Countries
• http://data.unaids.org/pub/GlobalReport/2006
[use this for local charts]

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