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Time to improve Aids reporting
16/03/2006 10:57 - (SA)
HIV/Aids does not really make for riveting reading. Except in the USA, way back, in the 80s, when it was still fashionable to describe how someone is slowly dying from Aids. When you could even win a Pulitzer prize for doing it.
These days, Aids Fatigue is, well, more or less all-consuming, among those producing the news as well as those reading the news.
That's why an invigorating shot straight into the bloodstream earlier this week was so welcome.
All the news editors in our country should have attended the seminar on HIV/Aids and the media. A specialist Aids reporter and Fulbright professor shot straight from the hip, illustrating why there should be no tip-toeing around political correctness.
Elinor Burkett, head of the Department of Journalism at the University of Alaska, is doing a stint as a senior scholar in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. (And yes, you may ask: just how many South Africans are brave enough to venture across that northern border of ours?)
But stick to the storyline: why is it so important to resurrect Aids stories?
The straight answer: it is a pandemic that has a devastating effect on all sectors of society. Every news institution should have a dedicated HIV/Aids desk, with a beat reporter that gets the time and opportunities to write about every aspect of HIV/Aids. The disease, whilst devouring a whole generation and destroying our soul, demands nothing less.
'Aids is an epidemic of denial'
"Aids is an epidemic of denial" is one of the quotable quotes Elinor challenged her audience with. That's why mass media should kickstart communities out of their Aids lethargy.
And it's not a question of how much you report on Aids. It's HOW you do it.
As Elinor said: reporting on Aids is a licence to report on every single aspect of society: politics, fraud, corruption, scientific misconduct. The whole catastrophe, literally.
Yet, instead of doing our job, we have a "massive exercise in political correctness".
And this by professionals who are supposed to be immune to any kind of correctness?
And, ah yes, in case we've forgotten: we are supposed to offend those in power.
However, the fact that us journalists, especially in South Africa, do not offend the powerful is not our greatest problem.
Proper Aids reporting, unfortunately, is also about offending ordinary people. And that's the most difficult part.
Aids reporting is about telling your readers what they don't want to hear. Stories that will - and must - challenge comfort zones.
Some of Elinor's medicine:
People are falling into "easy truths". It is a "disease of poverty" - "paraded as enlightened rhetoric". These "easy myths" need to be punctured.
You cannot report on Aids if you do not know science - ensure you constantly educate yourself; Elinor is doing it for the past couple of decades. This means she can even inform her readers that yes, you can boost your immune system by something like 9% if you sleep enough. And by 12% if you're happy. Indeed, there's good news too.
Report on everything - including rumours. There was the one that the lubrication in condoms carry the virus. Elinor's advice was: go buy 100 condoms in all parts of town, have it tested in a laboratory and report on it. It led to a great story.
Men are blaming women for an epidemic that is spread by men. This message could offend men - but the truth needs to be told.
Report tough. Don't try not to offend. Being offensive might just be the answer between bringing the rate of infection down and getting more people to lead quality lives.
Fact is: it is a 100% preventable disease.
Why then can't we prevent it? Nor care for those who were unfortunate to be infected with it?
More questions that we should ask ourselves: Is the media playing its part? Or are we too obliging?
Maybe we're too afraid to be offensive?
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.
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