The ethics of reporting on HIV/AIDS in three major South African newspapers

[摘要] English: In the study, the researcher explores the issue of ethics of reporting on HIV/Aids inthree major South African newspapers, namely Mail & Guardian, The Star and DailySun. The researcher argues that deontological and social responsibility ethicalapproaches are the necessary foundation upon which ethical decisions ought to bebased, regarding the coverage of the pandemic in the media.The researcher establishes that journalists have to be bound by duty, which is a keyconcept within the ethical paradigms which are being proposed. The position that theresearcher maintains is premised on the fact that journalists have a responsibility tosociety, especially because HIV/Aids is killing millions of Africans. And since there isno known cure for the disease, the media have a powerful role to play in ensuring thatissues relating to the disease are reported consistently and regularly, since the mediahave an enormous influence (Retief 2002: 5).Using quantitative and qualitative content analysis as a research design, theresearcher examined specifically four main ethical violations levelled against themedia. It was found that in the newspapers studied, they had, on average, one storyper issue; there is a gross dearth of stories which weré humanised; the language ofreporting, especially the use of some metaphors, had negative connotations, somepositive, and one was political. Regarding sensationalist headlines and text, very fewexamples were found.One of the major recommendations is that stories on HIV/Aids ought to be humanised,and the narrative genre of news writing offers a solution.

[发布机构] University of the Free State