AIDS Represented Within the Media

Authors

  • Emily MacIsaac

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5931/djim.v13i1.6923

Keywords:

Epidemology, America, Illness, HIV/AIDS

Abstract

This paper is about the media portrayal of HIV/AIDS within America primarily during the first two decades of the epidemic. This paper will outline different types of media and how they portrayed those affected with this illness. The news mainly indicated that those who were gay, intravenous drug-users, or haemophiliacs were the key demographic to contract HIV/AIDS. Many began to feel invincible to HIV/AIDS because the media was highlighting specific demographics of people. The Center of Disease Control‘s (CDC) statistics indicate that gay men were not the ‘high risk‘ population, but young African and Hispanic adults were at highest risk. The purpose of this paper is to indicate that the media swayed public opinion, as seen in Kathleen Farrell‘s study, which spread misconceptions about how this illness was contracted, transmitted, and how HIV positive individuals led their lives.

Author Biography

Emily MacIsaac

Emily MacIsaac is a Dalhousie MLIS student, who has an undergraduate degree in History from the University of Prince Edward Island. The paper she is presenting, AIDS Represented Within the Media, represents her love for history and her love of cultural history. This paper was written for the Information in Society course as this assignment required a topic that dealt with, just that, information within society. Emily chose this topic because it was relevant to her interests, and HIV/AIDS is still relevant today as it has effected how many institutions teach sexual education to young adults. Emily enjoyed writing this paper, and is excited to share her work by publishing this paper.

References

Brodie, M., Hamel, E., Brady, L. A., Kates, J., & Altman, D. E. (2004). AIDS at 21: Media coverage of the HIV epidemic 1981-2002. Columbia Journalism Review, 42(6), A1.

Burkett, E. (1995). The Gravest Show on Earth: America in the Age of AIDS. New York: Park Avenue South.

Family in AIDS Case Quits Florida Town After House Burns (1987, August 30), New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/30/us/family-in-aids-case-quits-florida-town-after-house-burns.html

Farrell, K. P. (2006). HIV on TV: Conversations with young gay men. Sexualities, 9(2), 193-213.

Gallagher, J. (2014, October 3). Aids: Origin of pandemic 'was 1920s Kinshasa'. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29442642

Gallagher, J. (2016, October 26). HIV Patient Zero cleared by science. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37767179

Hart, K. R. (2002). Representing men with HIV/AIDS in American movies. Journal of Men's Studies, 11(1), 77. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.dal.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.dal.ca/docview/222640331?accountid=10406

Locatelli, S., & Peeters, M. (2012). Cross-species transmission of simian retroviruses: how and why they could lead to the emergence of new diseases in the human population. Aids, 26(6), 659-673.

Netburn. D. (2016, October 26). How scientists proved the wrong man was blamed for bringing HIV to the U.S. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-hiv-genetic-history-20161026-snap-story.html

Pepin, J. (2011). The origins of AIDS. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Schrader, V. L. (2015). " No Day But Today:" Life Perspectives of HIV-Positive Individuals in the Musical Rent. Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal, 36(1), 3.

Shilts, R. (1987). And the band played on: People, politics, and the AIDS epidemic. New York: St. Martins.

Downloads

Published

2017-04-06

Issue

Vol. 13 (2017)

Section

Articles

License

Papers published in the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management must be the original, unpublished work of the author. Contributors are responsible for obtaining any copyright clearances required in relation to their work.

Authors submitting a paper to the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management automatically agree to grant a limited license to DJIM if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. This license gives permission for DJIM to publish the paper in a given issue and to maintain the work in the electronic journal archive. DJIM also submits issues to institutional repositories and Open Access repositories.

Contributors agree to each reader accessing, downloading, or printing one copy of their article for their own personal use or research. All other copyrights remain with the author, subject to the requirements that any republication of the work be accompanied by an acknowledgement that the work was first published in the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management and that the DJIM Editorial Chair must be notified of any republication of a work first published in DJIM.

Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management
c/o School of Information Management
Faculty of Management
Dalhousie University
Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building
6100 University Avenue
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5
Canada

Email: djim@dal.ca

Authors should recognize that, because of the nature of the Internet, the publisher has no control over unauthorized copying or editing of protected works.