Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Comprehensive & Cost Effective Laboratory Monitoring of HIV/AIDS: an African Role Model
Published on: October 31, 2010
Postcolonial constructions of HIV/AIDS: meaning, culture, and structure
Shaunak Sastry1, Mohan J Dutta
1Department of Communication, Purdue University, Beering Hall #2114, 100 N. University Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. ssastry@purdue.edu
Abstract:
As a field of inquiry, postcolonial health communication seeks to apprehend processes implicated in the construction of "primitive" versus "modern" with respect to issues of health. In the case of HIV/AIDS, the sociocultural representations of the disease have a profound impact on how the disease is configured medically and symbolically in dominant cultural imagination. Postcolonial constructions of disease are mobilized around the political and economic interests of the dominant power structures in global spaces. In this article, a thematic analysis of the constructions of HIV/AIDS in India in the mainstream U.S. news media was conducted. A corpus of news articles from the Lexis-Nexis database was created with the keywords "HIV," "AIDS," and "India." Three themes emerged from the study: (a) India as a site of biomedical control; (b) the economic logics of HIV/AIDS; and (c) AIDS, development, and the "Third World."
Related Concept Videos
Colonisation of Pathogens
Sexually Transmitted Infections
Amebiasis
Retrovirus Life Cycles
Immunodeficiency Diseases
There are three main causes of immunodeficiency disorders...
Self Within Cultural Contexts
