Our Proposal

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The Media’s Control Over HIV Perceptions: Journalism’s Role in the Fight

Background:

Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, 39 million people have died and 36.9 million are currently infected (1). In countless countries around the world, people living with HIV are being discriminated against, convicted, and prosecuted of crimes related to HIV. Country’s laws have transformed the perspectives entire societies’ maintain towards AIDS and anyone associated with it’s culture. Originating from social concern among Americans through the media, the HIV epidemic rapidly evolved into a moral panic that furiously spread across every continent in the world. Eventually, this negative stigma was translated into many country’s legal systems and cultures through the establishment of discriminatory laws and harmful perceptions towards individuals with relation to HIV/AIDS. Therefore, certain social groups were marginalized because of HIV, mainly due to the cultural oppositions many different societies held, including homosexuals, bisexuals, promiscuous individuals, sex workers, and injection drug users (2). Although there were many factors which promoted the creation of a negative stigma towards people living with HIV, I believe the media (journalism, newspaper, television) was one of the most powerful outlets for influencing societal values, morals, and stereotypes. Throughout the following two paragraphs, I will provide context for HIV/AIDS being negatively affected due to country’s laws by using Nigeria and Uganda as examples.

To begin with, Journalists Against AIDS reported that Nigerian health staff obtain 70% of their knowledge about AIDS from the Nigerian media (7). The significance of these results imply that the media is the “HIV educator” to not only Nigerian citizens, but also the country’s health professionals by providing them with 70% of their knowledge. This number is staggeringly high and dangerous considering the credibility and factual reputation of Nigerian culture and media regarding AIDS. HIV criminalization cases generate far more coverage in the media compared to other stories about prevention or access to treatment, which means that a majority of the general population will only see HIV mentioned in relation to a criminalization case (7). Additionally, the final passage of the law against homosexuality passed in 2014 (which makes gay meetings a crime and same-sex relationships punishable by 14 years in prison) was widely considered as a reaction from American media’s pressure for Nigerians to embrace gay rights (4). As a result, fierce opposition came from African governments and private organizations, which accused Western nations of cultural imperialism by attempting to impose their values on an unwilling continent (4). Chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Odinkalu, explained the overwhelming gay rights support from Western media is creating a “risk [which] is causing more harm than good … You don’t want an infusion of good will to actually do harm to the community”. Even both, opposing and supporting lawmakers, claimed that the excessively harsh punishments within the 2014 law against homosexuality were a reaction to what lobbyists felt was an egregious interference by the West, and speculated that the law would not have come in the form it did had it not been for the overkill of American pressure (4). Furthermore in 2005, another Nigerian study surveyed discriminatory attitudes and practices among 1,000 Nigerian health care professionals (3). The results stated that 9% of professionals (doctors, physicians, nurses, etc.) refused admission or care for patients with HIV, 20% agreed individuals with AIDS deserved their infection due to immoral behavior, and 8% believed treating someone with HIV was a waste of resources. Evidently, the country of Nigeria is facing challenges towards AIDS confrontation. Not only is a majority of Nigerian culture, media, and citizens in opposition of HIV treatment, but doctors, nurses, and health care professionals are also misinformed by the media and create prejudice against individuals living with HIV. This is an unfortunate reality, especially since the public health sector of any country is supposed to be among the most (if not the most) supporting institution of any society regarding the topics of sexual preference or human immunodeficiency virus. Overall, many African activists claim that efforts should be concentrated on quietly educating the public about homosexuality and changing social attitudes (4).

Another country withstanding defiance against HIV resolution is Uganda, which maintains a deeply conservative society where a majority oppose gay rights and homosexual acts are punished with a sentence for life imprisonment (5). In fact, Uganda’s anti-homosexuality act signed by the president in 2014 punishes any type of gay sex, sex while HIV-positive, same-sex marriage, attempts to commit homosexuality, or even the promotion of homosexuality with either seven years or life imprisonment (5). These laws, which bring forth extremely negative cultural connotations in the media, also impose huge violations of Ugandan’s human rights. But nonetheless, the ethics and integrity minister of Uganda, Nsaba Buturo, maintained his view that homosexuality is a “moral perversion that must not be allowed to spread. There have been a lot of discussion in government … regarding the proposed law, but we now think a life sentence could be better … Killing them might not be helpful” (8). Openly promoting the criminalization of an entire social group based on their sexual preference, these severe words of hatred and persecution towards homosexuality from such a high ranking government official assist in illustrating the gravity of Uganda’s situation, in terms of cultural norms and what is socially acceptable in the media. And despite the anti-homosexuality legislation being annulled because of an insufficient amount of parliament members present at the vote, the verdict was based on technical grounds, instead of what should have been moral or ethical concerns (6). Evidently, the media plays a significantly influential role in the perception and laws within any society regarding HIV/AIDS. In conclusion, it is these kinds of harmful laws and negative cultural stigmas that deter those most in need of HIV treatment from receiving medication, as well as facilitate the spread of HIV, continue the prosecution, and further the categorization of those living with AIDS.

Methodology:

The dilemma of countries harmful laws and their influence over HIV prevention is a subject I hope to address. My proposal entails an international and multilingual journal, both online and printed, that examines harmful influences any country’s laws have on HIV prevention and to what degree this influence extends to, through news stories and articles. The purpose for this non-profit journal to be centered on political and HIV/AIDS issues is to dissuade countries, governments, corporations, organizations, and citizens from supporting, establishing, or reinforcing damaging laws towards HIV/AIDS. This project will commence by gathering a core group of experienced professionals whom are passionate and dedicated in fighting HIV/AIDS through journalism. The most difficult step of this project lies in finding and uniting the proper individuals interested in starting this non-profit organization, which could potentially takes months in finding the necessary personnel. Once established, this core group will act as a board of review that discusses and decides on the actions taken by the journal organization, including the processes of hiring and supervising employees, managing finances, seeking grants or funding, marketing the organization, advertising for an audience base, editing and publishing the journal. The second step in this process, which may take the longest to complete (possibly another few months), would be to generate enough interest and financial support from (non-profit) investments, donations, and grants to begin creating the journal organization. Consequently, a marketing team will begin with the structuring of how we we will spread our organization’s brand recognition, while an advertising team will be responsible for gathering a substantial audience base. Thereafter, adequate social science researchers and analysts will be recruited to study law’s relation and significance to AIDS/HIV prevention in different countries, submit their material to undergo scholarly peer review for further re-editing, have their works professionally translated in various languages, and publish their findings. These article’s finding will be produced using the credible and verifiable information collected by the social scientists, whether they be issued on a weekly or monthly basis, without interference of any third party interests or bias perspectives. In addition, trained outreach recruiters will be employed to contact major and local communities, schools, universities, AIDS/HIV organizations, government organizations, social organizations, social media, newspapers, magazines, websites, television and radio channels, and other influential social institutions around the world in hopes of spreading our journal’s message. As a result, I hope that different societies and cultures become more understanding towards members related to the AIDS/HIV community by receiving an education on tolerance and acceptance of others, with hopes of making a positive change take place in individual’s lives through the law. Furthermore, this journal organization will not (unlike a majority of the “activist media”) attempt to pressure or criticize its targeted audience into accepting HIV persecution and categorization, but will instead listen to the warnings and advice from local activists dealing with and experiencing the issues at hand. For example, journalist efforts (and “activist media”) reaching out to countries in Africa could be concentrated on quietly educating the public about homosexuality, HIV/AIDS understanding, and changing social attitudes (as local activists have suggested), instead imposing their “foreign values” onto an unwilling continent. As was evident in Nigeria and Uganda, an overwhelming amount of pressure and criticism from the Western media towards certain country’s laws led to even worse consequences for the individuals whom they intended to support. Some potential difficulties in completing my project include public criticism, lacking proper social science researchers, and insufficient recognition from various organizations and institutions during initial contacts. Overall, an international and multilingual political journal is a necessary measure in restricting laws from intervening with HIV prevention, acting as the global informative watchdog for individuals living with HIV.

Outcomes and Impact:

The goals I hope to achieve through the completion of my project are many, some short term accomplishments, while others achievements would be ongoing until the issues of HIV prevention are finally resolved. I would like for my journalists to have contact and be able to work with the local communities and activists in order to truly get a full perspective on every situation. Third party insight is crucial and at times necessary, especially when conflicting cultural values or morals are at hand. It is therefore essential that my media source successfully educates individuals on HIV topics, whether it be quietly so to not generate a backfiring opposition or vigorously to embrace an oncoming social change, depending on the cultural setting and reality of the situation. Furthermore, I would try my hardest to maintain the organization ad free and closed to any third party interests, so as to not jeopardize the credibility and unbiased reputation of the established journal. I would also hope that my website and printed issues would gather at least several thousand followers in order to begin creating an actual change in society. Ideally, my organization would reach the unimaginable success of having infiltrated every country and language, managing hundreds of campaigns to promote social change against all the harmful laws around the world, in hopes of eventually having them changed or abolished. Overall, I will measure my impact based on the amount of social attention my organization is able to receive. Eventually, if enough individuals are engaged with our organization, then we might be able to host several lectures, workshops, or even conferences in different towns, cities, or countries. Social media is likely to be the best source of access to a large audience pool, which is where I plan to gathering as many followers or contacts as possible, whether it be through social media posts, videos, emails, phone calls, ads, flyers, and even sponsorships. Digital marketing will be the most powerful technique in attracting new followers, by analyzing the website traffic trends and most efficient outlets for “page hits” in order to develop the best methods for advertising (suited for the organization). In the end, making a positive effect on the lives of people living with HIV is the ultimate goal and measure of my success, whether it be large or small, because at the end of the day anything helps.

Resources:

My proposal will require a vast amount of resources in order to be able to complete it desired goals. In terms of a financial perspective, my project would demand at least $10,000 to begin (in order to create the core group that will make up the review board), followed by further funding until the organization could reach the possibility of becoming financially independent. But in order for the journal to expand into other countries and languages, it would have to generate an income of $100,000’s a year, because only then could it have the capacity to truly create a change towards the laws negatively affecting people living with HIV. As for the human resources, the organization would be functioning alongside the full-time force of a marketing team, advertising team, financial managers, outreach recruiters, social media staff, editing staff, publishing staff, supervising staff, and a board of review. Considering the costly reality of managing dozens of full time employees, this project heavily depends on the public interest and financial success of the journal. Lastly, in terms of community resources, the journal needs as much attention as it can get. Thereby increasing the likelihood of other followers, a financial benefits, or social changes.

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