Media watchdog groups Gender Links and Media Monitoring Project have slammed South Africa's media for not addressing the problem of AIDS adequately even as the country struggles against the HIV virus. In a joint study, the groups found that only two per cent of news items in the media in the country with the highest rate of HIV prevalence were about HIV and AIDS. In addition, the study said that gender dimensions of the HIV pandemic were reflected poorly in the stories.
The findings of the study, called the
HIV and AIDS and Gender Baseline Study, were based on data from 118 media houses in 11 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. Around 37, 001 news items over a period of one month in 2005 were analyzed. The researchers found that only three per cent of all news mentioned the pandemic, with the regional reporting of HIV/AIDS restricted to two per cent. The findings assume significance due to the fact that South Africa has 5 million people living with HIV, the highest in the world.
“Lesotho had the highest percentage of HIV/AIDS stories with 19 per cent and Mauritius had the lowest with just one per cent,” said William Bird, director of the Media Monitoring Project. Among the 20 different media houses in South Africa, the
Mail & Guardian wrote the most about AIDS while
Rapport the least, found the study that took account news items between October and November 2005.
Another alarming finding was that in the stories that did touch upon the issue, only four per cent of all sources quoted in the media in the SADC region were of those who had HIV and AIDS. A whopping 42 per cent of the sources quoted were government officials and executives from international health organizations. “People living with HIV were most often used as sources in Swaziland (10 per cent), Tanzania (7 per cent) and South Africa (6 per cent). And despite the disproportionate burden of the pandemic borne by women, who constitute the highest proportion of those living with HIV, they constitute only 39 per cent of sources overall,” the study said.
According to Gender Links executive director Colleen Morna, AIDS patients, especially women, in the region needed more attention from the media. “Our aim is to reach at least 80 per cent of the newsrooms and conduct workshops in media houses to improve the level of reporting on the issue,” she said. Morna felt that the findings clearly reflected the fact that the media itself did not understand the issue well.
Of the stories that did mention the issue, 42 per cent focused on prevention, sexual relations, and transmission of the virus from a mother to the child. About 16 per cent were about offering support and care to those who already have the disease. Morna said that more attention had to be given to topics like intergenerational sex, gender-based violence and cultural practices.
“Within this category, orphans and vulnerable children received the greatest attention and home-based care received only minimal attention,” Bird said. He, however, agreed that the media seemed to have become more sensitive about the way it phrased the new items. Blatant stereotypes were restricted to 10 per cent. “On the positive side, there have been a number of improvements in media reporting. These include fewer blatant stereotypes and increased sensitivity to language,” he said. But most of the stories written were features and not hard news related to the pandemic.
