The scientific politics of HIV/AIDS : a media perspective

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: When South Africa's President, Thabo Mbeki, began doubting that HfV was the cause ofAIDS in the late nineties, the debate he introduced in his country was not new; it hadraged in the United States as far back as a decade ago. But, even prior to that, there hadbeen numerous controversies pertaining to the discovery of the Ill-virus. This thesisargues that those contentions created such a heated atmosphere that the causal debatesthat were to follow, however incredible they were, were largely unavoidable.In its coverage of the epidemic, the media were immersed in its own politics. During theearly eighties, the gay newspapers in the US felt a personal responsibility to find thecause of a disease that was rapidly killing many of its readers. But, in the process, theoften promoted unscientific and dangerous approaches. By the time the AIDS dissidentdebate had unraveled in the US, the gay media was so suspicious of the anti-gay Reagangovernment that they frequently advanced dissident arguments. The mainstream andscientific media, on the other hand, were perceived as rigidly supporting governmentinstitutions, excluding critical voices.When the dissident debate reached South Africa ten years later, the South African mediawas completely unprepared. Most journalists had never heard of AIDS dissidents; somehad not even heard of HfV or the anti-AIDS drug AZT, that the President had labeledtoxic. Begin a new democracy, with a history of white oppression, the black and whitemedia differed immensely on how to cover 'the President's debate'. Criticism of the newlyelected ANC government's arguments were often branded racist and unpatriotic, withjournalists suffering regular intimidation at the hands of state officials and governmentalignededitors.This thesis examines the development of the politics surrounding the science of AIDS,from the discovery of'HfV up until Thabo Mbeki's controversial contentions. To an equalextent, it looks at the news media's coverage of the process, focusing on the approachesto the debate of various media outlets and individual journalists. It also raises ethicalissues, particularly in South Africa, that emerged during one of the most widely reporteddebates in the country's history. It in no way attempts to provide a quantitative analysis ofmedia coverage and, in the case of the US media, draws heavily on analytical studiesconducted at the time.NOTE: In the analysis of the South African media's coverage of the AIDS dissidentdebate in Part Three: B, issues pertaining to the country's public broadcaster, the SouthAfrican Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), were not discussed The reason was that theauthor was the Corporation's Health Correspondent at the time, and therefore too closelyinvolved in the institution in order to provide an objective perspective.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University