Marseille 2007
| Abstract #50 - The VIHsibilit Project: Comparative Analysis of HIV-Positive Women and Men in Local AIDS Press Coverage and Community Responses | ||||
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Session: 32.1: Theatre and Media and Internet (Parallel) on Tuesday @ 11.00-12.30 in PR Chaired by Larry Brown, Victoria Gordillo Authors: Presenting Author: Dr Maria Nengeh Mensah - Universit du Qubec Montral, Canada |
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| Additional Authors: Dr Joanne Otis, Dr Tom Waugh, Mr Ren Lavoie, Mr Jean Dumas, Ms Mlina Bernier, Ms Marie-Julie Garneau, Ms Catherine Giroux, | ||||
| Aim: People living with HIV/AIDS rarely appear in the media, but when they do their representation is informed by a relative invisibility. Historically, this situation can be explained by the localisation of the epidemic as concerning others (1980s), the transition from a context where we died from AIDS to one where we live with HIV (1990s), and the realisation that the pandemic has multiple faces, requiring both fragmented intervention efforts as well as a unified response (2000s). This paper presents data from a comparative analysis of the complex transformations of media messages and discourse about men and women living with HIV in Qubec, over a period of 23 years of press coverage (1982-2004). The goal of the study is to identify how media and community responses can contribute to the development of empowering social environments for persons living with HIV/AIDS, thereby reducing discrimination and stigma. | ||||
| Method / Issue: A search for HIV/AIDS keywords in 4 francophone Qubec daily newspapers (La Presse, Le Devoir, Le Soleil and Le Droit) yielded a large corpus of media articles (n=16 000) in which a smaller sample was examined more closely (n=3 600). Each of the selected articles contained keywords related to women and/or men living with HIV/AIDS. In order to determine who is made visible and to trace their transformation over time, quantitative computer-assisted analyses were conducted using SATO software. Qualitative context analyses were conducted to sort more broadly how HIV-positive persons are made visible. An advisory committee composed of media and community representatives was formed to interpret research results, propose directions for further analyses, and plan joint responses on each emerging media visibility. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed that there are key moments of visibility of persons living with HIV in the press over time, including world AIDS day and public personas disclosed as seropositive. We outline how gender is a significant determinant of diagnostic visibility (e.g., messages about epidemiology and testing), classificatory visibility (e.g., messages about HIV exposure identities), and activist visibility (e.g., messages about community building and resistance). A comparative analysis for the 1988-2004 period showed that women tend to be associated with diagnostic and activist visibility, while men tend to be more often associated with classificatory visibility. The advisory committee raised specific issues and challenges for media and communities involved. | ||||
| Discussion: The VIHsibilit project identified the numerous ways in which gendered local press coverage can impact on community responses to HIV/AIDS, and inversely, how community responses can affect local AIDS press coverage. Negotiating with often contradictory meaning and representation of HIV-positive women and men in the media is a shared venture: local press coverage led by media professionals and community responses led by AIDS service organisations as well as individual living with HIV/AIDS, together can make a difference in developing and implementing creative and empowering social environments for all. | ||||
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