Constructing HIV/AIDS in Chinese media (2010-2024): A mixed-methods study

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Media Studies
• Sociolinguistics

Background:

• HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of infectious disease mortality in China.
• Traditional media significantly influences public perception of HIV/AIDS.
• Persistent challenges in HIV/AIDS prevention necessitate understanding media discourse.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the evolution of media discourse on HIV/AIDS in China from 2010-2024.
• To identify thematic networks, terminology for people living with HIV (PLHIV), and metaphors used in media.
• To examine the interrelationships between discursive strategies and thematic contexts.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of Topic Model Networks (ANTMN) and collocation analysis on a large news article corpus.
• Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) and network backbone method for interrelationship analysis.
• Extraction of thematic communities, PLHIV terminology categories, and HIV/AIDS metaphor categories.

Main Results:

• Five major thematic communities identified: "Prevention and control", "Publicity", "Society", "Medicine", and "PLHIV", comprising 48 topics.
• Discourse shows a shift towards political and macro-level narratives, away from individual/social perspectives.
• While person-first language for PLHIV is prevalent, stigmatizing terminology persists; "war", "journey", and "entity" are core metaphors.

Conclusions:

• Media discourse on HIV/AIDS in China has become more political and macro-level.
• Persistent stigmatizing language and metaphors in media coverage of PLHIV highlight entrenched societal issues.
• Findings offer insights into media's role in shaping social cognition of HIV/AIDS within China's state-influenced media system.