October 2012

5 -11 October 2012—HIV News Update.

Featured:

More print space makes for indepth HIV reporting: The Times demonstrates that giving HIV-related reports room to breathe delivers better journalism.
Emphasising difference: The normalisation of HIV: A news article on a dating site exclusively devoted to making HIV-positive matches has the potential to normalise HIV but also sends out the contradictory message that HIV-positive people should stick to their own when it comes to love and sex.
Sowetan actively addresses HIV myth: The Sowetan uses its editorial comment as a platform to address an HIV-related myth around albinism.

In the news:

12-18 October 2012—HIV News Update.

Featured:

Sowetan opinion piece does women an injustice: A tasteless opinion piece in the Sowetan warning parents to lock up their daughters in order to protect them from sexual assault and “Aids” ironically contributes to a culture of gender inequality which heightens women’s vulnerability to HIV.
TNA & Sowetan report on nuanaces in HIV prevention: Highlighting HIV prevention drives aimed at certain groups communicates how far South Africa has come in addressing the HIV epidemic but also indicates that HIV prevention is not one size fits all.
Weighty issue: The Star integrates HIV into obesity report: An article in The Star (18 October 2012) that examines obesity in South Africa takes HIV into account.

In the news:

26 October - 1 November 2012—HIV News Update.

Featured:

Feeding misperceptions around food and ART: An Ourhealth article featured on the Health-e website, which tells the storyof a woman who is putting off antiretroviral treatment (ART) because she does not have a steady supply of food, does not make it clear that while not ideal, antiretrovirals (ARVs) can be taken on an empty stomach or in the absence of a ‘good’ diet.
Media must inform and empower passive patients: If media coverage is anything to go by cases of HIV and TB misdiagnosis seems to be on the rise. But articles that tackle this issue seem to be reluctant to step in where the healthcare system has failed by providing factual information that could empower readers and stamp out instances misdiagnosis.
Papers take a closer look at HIV vaccine breakthrough: Two comprehensive articles in the City Press and The Sunday Independent afford greater insight into the HIV vaccine breakthrough, which made news last week.
Crisis in health care considered in contxet of HIV: Articles highlighting the crisis in the public health care sector that incorporate how HIV-related services are being affected, show that journalists are beginning to consider HIV as a contextual factor.

In the news:

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