It's time to focus on HIV/Aids
2005-03-17 08:11
Yes, HIV/Aids and the media was the topic of this column two weeks ago. But can one write too often on the subject?
It seems some decision makers in newsrooms think that way. But then, is the same argument used when it comes to rugby, crime, or Patricia Lewis, asks one of the lone journalistic voices, Anso Thom, of Health-e news.
The occasion was a workshop presented by the HIV/Aids and the Media Project in conjunction with the Stellenbosch University's Department of Journalism.
The HIV/Aids and the Media Project is an initiative jointly run by the Wits Perinatal HIV Research Unit and the Journalism and Media Studies Programme.
The journalists who were allowed to take time off from newsrooms to attend the workshop (far too few, unfortunately, and also not those in decision making positions), could take a whole notebook full of new story angles to their institutions.
Only problem, it seems, is how to convince the powers that be that it is as newsworthy, at least, as the latest skopskiet&skinner story.
HIV and Aids not only need to be high on the news agenda, but also on the public's agenda. And the internal newsroom agenda.
Thom made a passionate plea that journalists - but more importantly, those higher up in the journalism food chain - do stories that matter.
And stories on HIV and Aids are stories that matter. She quoted the director of the UN Aids programme, as saying that as the virus spreads further, Africa will face an unprecedented crisis and a challenge as seen never before since the advent of slavery.
In our country, HIV/Aids cannot but be a highly politicised issue. Many of the problems with the management of the pandemic, from the roll out (now that we have it) to prevention strategies, are political issues.
The N2-syndrome
Nevertheless, what can we as the media do to assist our country in curbing this dreadful scourge that is spreading like a poison cloud over our country? (The "N2-syndrome": the fact that those towns along the N2 have a much higher prevalence of HIV/Aids than other platteland areas.)
"We are often asked to produce less 'Aids stories', told that readers are 'tired of reading about Aids'. On the other hand, I do not see a letting up in reporting on crime, rugby, the weather, our deputy-president, Patricia Lewis and so on", said Thom in her presentation.
And then, the argument also of this column two weeks ago: "Is it not short sighted to fail to see that Aids is part of everything?"
Thom continues: "These decisions are made by people who live in ivory towers, far removed from the epidemic.
It would be interesting to gauge how many of these decision makers have been to Khayelitsha to see 600 patients waiting on a daily basis to receive their TB treatment, many of them HIV positive.
I wonder how many of them have been to Radoo in the far Northern Province, where they will come across Maria, a 13 year-old who cares for her two young brothers while her parents and baby sister lie buried in the backyard."
'Aids fatigue'
While, on the one hand, looking out for "Aids fatigue" among readers, the media needs to find "new, innovative, inspiring, interesting ways" to speak to South Africans.
Says Thom: the media has to ask itself how can we contribute? Are we part of the problem? What can we do? "Let us not count how many centimetres we are giving to an Aids-related article, instead of news on Patricia Lewis' porn video or the latest injury in the Stormers' camp."
As also argued two weeks ago: the Aids beat is not the responsibility of the health reporter, but rather the responsibility of the newspaper as whole. It is much more than a health problem.
And as journalists, Thom says, we need to remind ourselves "that we are South Africans before we are journalists and that this extraordinary epidemic is calling for extraordinary responses."
And that, certainly, is why we as journalists need to take extraordinary decisions, write in an extraordinary way, and publish and broadcast in extraordinary ways. And by so doing, must have an extraordinary powerful influence in curbing this scourge "worse than slavery".
Lizette Rabe is head of the postgraduate Department of Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch, a Sanef council member and Sanef-convenor for the Western Cape. And she's addicted to news.
Send your comments to Lizette or discuss this column now in our debating forum.
Disclaimer: News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24.