Articles About Internews

Issue 104, July/August 2007
A Publication of Global Health Council

Journalists and Health Communicators – They are Not the Same

BY RON MACINNIS, DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND PROGRAMS, INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETY

I spent the last few years working to help raise the capacity of journalists to report on HIV/AIDS in developing countries. What most impressed me was how many told me they had never met a person living openly with HIV/AIDS. Those who showed interest in reporting on HIV got little support from their editors and bosses.

Catching local news in developing countries, you see that the HIV/AIDS coverage is commonly reduced to “event-driven” news – press releases and announcements of global health partnerships reaching the national level or the launch of a new national health program.

This problem often emanates from the offices of well-funded international NGOs working in developing countries that use the local media as a tool for messaging and often, for their own public relations. They purchase print space and airtime for their organization, its government campaigns, or press releases and statements to get quick, targeted HIV messages across. Such “purchased news” neither makes policies or issues relevant to readers and viewers nor stimulates dialogue or discussion in the community. And most of all it leaves little motivation for local editors and journalists to conduct their own investigations and produce their own reports.

At the same time, in countries facing the biggest HIV/AIDS challenges, the media landscape is rapidly changing. A new information revolution is increasingly providing opportunities for airing multiple perspectives and creating space for public discussion, debate and analysis. There are a growing number of local radio stations, print publications, and wider Internet connectivity. There is television in places where there was none before with multiple, often commercial, channels where once there was only one.

In this evolving environment, journalists could play a key role in stimulating public discussion on complex issues and touch the lives of their audience. But to do this they will require the skills, resources and information to develop their potential.

Local news – on the radio, on television and in newspapers – is still the primary source of information, particularly in the developing countries most affected by HIV/AIDS. Local and national journalists – particularly on the radio – have an enormous influence on how HIV/AIDS is perceived and understood.

Because of this, journalists need to be given professional training to create their own programs with relevant knowledge for their audiences, rather than global HIV/AIDS partnerships prescribing to them what to write about and how to broadcast. Journalists themselves need to be able to recognize that prescriptive HIV/ AIDS messaging that may work well in campaigns does not work for them.

As audiences become more sophisticated with access to new and more diverse sources of information, they will want journalism and communication that translates global issues into their local vernacular. More importantly, they will want to participate in dialogue and discussion that follows.

The guarantee of quality HIV/AIDS journalism in much of the world will require considerable time, effort and financial resources. Promoting and investing in the abilities of the journalist to bring local health-focused news, feature stories and talk show programs into the mainstream media should be a global priority. This would best serve to meet the goals of both global HIV/AIDS partnerships and media development partnerships.