Media Watch
“Momma” doesn’t slay the myth monster
Following our articles on the potential for Agony Aunts to address HIV, yesterday The Star’s ‘Momma’ tackled the HIV aspect of a correspondents unprotected sex story. And while JournAIDS is happy to see Momma using her power as a source of HIV information, there is still a fly in the ointment, or rather the ‘oil’.
A young girl writes to Momma this week, saying that her boyfriend has told her that there is no risk of her falling pregnant if they have unprotected sex because the “oil” in condoms has damaged his kidneys.
However his girlfriend seems to have a sneaking suspicion that her boyfriend’s tale is of the tall variety because she writes to Momma to ask if there is a possibility that she could actually fall pregnant.
The Stuck Record: The SA media and HIV terminology
“Aids virus”, “HIV-AIDS”; The South African media continue to use outmoded, out dated and outright incorrect terms when writing about the HIV epidemic.
Articles in today’s editions of The New Age (TNA) and The Times are the latest to exemplify this trend.
To get straight to the heart of the matter, HIV and AIDS cannot be used interchangeably or lumped together, because they are not the same thing.
HIV is the virus which causes AIDS, a syndrome.
For further information on why using the correct HIV-terminology is important, please see our growing collection of blogs on the subject:
Papers should use “AIDS” carefully
News articles continue to confuse the HIV and AIDS issues by using the wrong terms in the wrong contexts. Besides the fact that this is technically incorrect, HIV terminology should reflect the changing nature of the condition, which has been mediated by interventions.
The headline of an article in yesterday’s edition of the Sunday Times gives us a perfect example of how not to frame an otherwise decent article on HIV.
The article which talks about new research aiming to find out why South African youth are worse affected by HIV than their US counterparts, not only lumps HIV and AIDS together in the now defunct HIV/AIDS combination but the headline also makes the mistake of talking about an ‘AIDS rate.’
Hugs and drugs: Behavior change still needs work
"She infected me, says doc" -- It’s the kind of story that elicits gasps, something that is reminiscent of an episode of the Jerry Springer show. Someone ‘intentionally’ infecting their partner with HIV is probably right up there with most people’s worst nightmare because it represents emotional and bodily betrayal all rolled up in one. But nevermind the sensationalist, dirty laundry aspect of this story, what this story really brings to light is the ever thorny issue of behavior change in HIV prevention.
Rethinking Risk
With the commendable strides in biomedical intervention garnering the bulk of our already scant HIV media coverage, the Sunday Times’ focus on young South Africans’ behaviour this week presented a welcome change of pace.
But those looking forward to a meaningful engagement with issues around sexual behaviour would have been somewhat disappointed.
The article recounts the findings of a recent collaborative study by the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of North Carolina, which attempted to gauge the sexual risk-taking behaviours of young adults (18 to 24).
