Logo Mediaproject 200

Who are we?

Media coverage of the HIV pandemic ranges from news stories and investigative journalism to soap opera storylines and popular blogs. What images are being presented to the public? Are the writers, reporters and scriptwriters informed about the nature of the disease and those that suffer from it? Do they perpetuate stereotypes and myths? Or are they presenting an image sustained by the ideals of journalistic responsibility and a ‘healthy’ media?

These are the questions raised by the HIV&AIDS Media Project, a collaboration between The Anova Health Institute and the Wits Journalism program. HIV is an extremely technical issue and journalists often lack the skill and knowledge to write accurately about it. News sources, along with other media outlets such as television and radio, frequently misrepresent issues related to HIV, such as men who have sex with men (MSM), multiple and concurrent partnerships (MCPs) and the HIV prevalence in South Africa.

 

Please follow the links to find out more about the project:

Wits Journalism Anova Health

The project is jointly managed by the Anova Health Institute and the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand. The project is funded by by the Health Communication Partnership based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Centre for Communication Programmes and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief through the United States Agency for International Development under terms of Award No. JH/HESA-02-05 and through the Anova Health Institute through PEPFAR via USAID under Award No. AID-674-A-12-00015.

USAID