AIDS and the press: an analysis of the coverage of AIDS by Zimbabwe newspapers

An analysis of articles about HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe newspapers for the period January 1987 to September 1988 reveals several areas of concern. An analysis of coverage before and after a Government campaign designed to increase awareness of issues related to AIDS indicated only a short term increase in press coverage of such issues. Articles were assigned to one of seven content categories: statistics, cure or vaccine, prevention, education and awareness, transmission and risk, counselling and care, and policy and economics. The relative lack of articles on counselling and care and on transmission and risk indicates possible gaps in public awareness of susceptibility to AIDS. There were few articles with a local basis, nor were there any personalized stories. This is likely to encourage feelings of distance and relatively low personal risk. In general, Zimbabwe newspapers show little of the sensationalist and prejudiced accounting of AIDS found in some British press coverage.