The importance of the mass media as major sources of information about HIV/AIDS – whether it be accurate or distorted – has emerged in many studies across the world (De Wet 2004; Finlay 2004; Shilts 1987). Since the presence of AIDS was first recorded more than twenty years ago, the news media have shaped our beliefs about AIDS, defined it for us and set the agenda for public discussion. Everything from our attitudes toward people living with HIV and AIDS to the response of our governments to the epidemic has been influenced by the media. News coverage of AIDS in the United States, as in other Western countries, has evolved over time from the early coverage that was often confusing and contradicting (Collins 2005¹ ; Kinsella 1989; Shilts 1987), tending to marginalize certain groups, to the more thoughtful and informative stories we see today.

But in many parts of the world, the media’s reporting of HIV/AIDS has not evolved much beyond that first phase. In several countries, sensationalist and often misleading reporting of AIDS-related issues continue to fuel fear and misconceptions among the general population and promote stigmatization and discrimination of those living with HIV. The international public health community is often frustrated by the poor quality of media coverage of HIV/AIDS issues in many countries, given the critical role that media plays in setting the social context for each country’s response to the epidemic. This community has tended to view journalists through their lens—as a vehicle to disseminate their health information—and is often disappointed when they fail miserably (Malan(a) 2005). Over the past decade, recognizing the media’s essential role, a number of international agencies and health NGOs have tried to reach out to local journalists in countries where they work to “train” them or “sensitize” them to HIV/AIDS issues. Also in an effort to increase media coverage of HIV, some UN agencies and other international organizations have tried sponsoring radio programs on AIDS as well. But these approaches mostly fail to take into account the journalists’ needs and constraints or the way in which news is actually produced. It also neglects to take into account the local media environment in which the journalist is working.

In HIV/AIDS reporting, journalists must deal with constantly changing events and scientific evidence, to present complex information in a way that will be readily understood by the audience. But in many countries, such as Kenya, the media environment often gets in the way of doing this work well. Many journalists can’t get the support of the editor or manager behind an AIDS story idea. Still others lack the ability to report properly because of a limited background in science and limited access to reliable sources of information. Under these circumstances, HIV/AIDS reporting can only be superficial and episodic at best, limited to the latest statistics or ribbon-cutting ceremony.

In Kenya, Internews Network conducted a needs assessment² in the summer of 2001 to examine the challenges and obstacles the Kenyan broadcast media were facing in reporting on HIV/AIDS in their country, as well as to identify opportunities for improvement. This assessment also examines what training efforts there had been to date and their weaknesses and strengths. It became clear that a number of key obstacles stood in the way of better quality radio coverage of HIV/AIDS, and that these obstacles would all have to be addressed if real, sustainable change was to take place.

The key obstacles identified were:

Lack of resources (ie. internet, telephone, recorders, studios);
Management reluctance to give air time to the topic (expect outside sponsorship to pay for programs);
Limited access to reliable information;
Lack of quality journalism training at colleges or universities;
Lack of general reporting/journalistic skills.

Following the needs assessment, Internews launched its Local Voices project in Kenya in early 2003 (with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development) to train, support and mentor radio journalists, talk show hosts, producers and disc jockeys to improve their reporting and programming on HIV related issues. The decision was made to initially focus the project’s efforts on radio since it has by far the widest reach in Kenya (National Council for Population and Development 2003).

The Local Voices project was designed to address all of the obstacles identified in the needs assessment in a comprehensive way, offering a range of support services to radio professionals. Through numerous discussions with journalists, media managers and NGOs on the ground it was clear that “training” alone was not enough. The ‘fly in- fly out’, ad hoc nature of the media training workshops that had taken place in Kenya prior to our assessment in 2001, without any follow up support, without any involvement of the media decision-makers or managers, was clearly not effective. By addressing the reality of the Kenyan media context, by involving media decision-makers from the outset, by providing on the ground ongoing support and mentoring as well as easy access to information and resources—the project was designed to enable the journalists to improve their HIV reporting and play a more meaningful role in helping Kenyan society to cope with AIDS.

Key components of the Local Voices project include:

Media resource center on HIV/AIDS (with internet access, documentation library, phones, computers with editing software, convenient to media houses in downtown Nairobi)
Radio production studio with a qualified sound technician
Sensitization of media decision-makers (radio station owners and managers)
Intensive, practical training of radio journalists, talk show hosts, DJs, with follow-up support and mentoring
Travel grants to investigate in-depth stories outside of Nairobi
Modest equipment grants (minidisk recorders for field reporting)
Training for AIDS NGO’s on effective communications/media relations

The basic tenets or principles that underpin the Local Voices methodology are the following:

Training must be journalist to journalist—media professionals training other media professionals.
The first step is always enlisting the commitment and support of media managers before any training activities begin.
Don’t mix your media – train print with print, radio with radio—their needs are different.
Trainees should always have personal interaction with people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) during the training. This will affect how they portray PLWHA in their reporting, and give the issue a face.
Include local site visits to an HIV counseling and testing center, an orphanage, a support group, etc. in all training programs.
70% of training time is spent on journalistic/radio skills building (with those skills then applied to AIDS issues with practical exercises) – 30% on HIV/AIDS information.
Keep it practical. Limit time spent listening to expert presentations.
Every journalist-trainee returns to work with a quality story that has been produced with the help of a senior journalism trainer.
Follow up with individual trainees and their media outlets is critical to ensure they apply what they’ve learned, navigate any obstacles they meet, and keep them interested and informed on HIV issues.

Evidence of the Impact of Communication

Before project activities began, Internews conducted baseline research as part of the project’s three-pronged evaluation strategy. The radio content analysis is an important part of that strategy, allowing us to measure any changes in frequency and quality of HIV/AIDS reporting and programming resulting from the intervention.

A local research firm in Kenya, Steadman International, was contracted to conduct this research. The first wave or baseline was conducted in June 2003, prior to us starting with activities. The 2nd wave was conducted a year later in June-July 2004. A 3rd Wave and analysis that looks at radio programming between June-July 2005 is currently underway. Eleven radio stations were recorded. A typical week of radio programming was monitored and recorded daily, 6am – 11:30 pm. Selected programs from the monitored week were played to listening groups. The analysis points to a significant change in radio’s coverage of HIV/AIDS issues from Wave 1 to Wave 2.

Key Findings from Comparison of Wave 1 and Wave 2:

HIV radio programs being sponsored by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA) during Wave 1 have dropped out in Wave 2 pointing towards the sponsoring of programs not being a sustainable approach (this will be discussed in more detail under the recommendations section)
Unsponsored news stories on HIV have increased in Wave 2 by 52%, while unsponsored talk shows/call-in programs on HIV have increased by 225%. “Unsponsored” programs refer to stations initiating and funding the production of programs themselves, as opposed to those programs that are produced with external funding, such as when a donor buys airtime or funds the production costs.
More of these HIV programs are airing during prime time in Wave 2, a 110% increase. (ie. 63 slots aired during prime time in Wave 2 compared to 30 in Wave 1). The programs are popular with both audience and management, who now demand high quality programming with reliable information aired in prime time.
During Wave 2, a variety of HIV-related topics are being discussed that were not present in Wave 1 – including the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), HIV and religion, anti-retroviral therapy (ART), sexual abuse, nutrition and HIV, and people living with HIV/AIDS.
During Wave 2, more of the programs include the personal testimonies and voices of those personally affected and infected than in Wave 1 (ie. A mother living with HIV/AIDS, a rape survivor etc).
The English Service of the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) – the country’s public broadcaster, which has national coverage – has recorded the highest increase in HIV/AIDS slots in Wave 2, from 4 to 38, both during prime time and off prime time.
Metro FM – KBC’s youth station – also shows an increase from 14 slots at Wave 1 to 29 at Wave 2. Also, more topics are being covered on this station, including people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs), the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. Although the slots being paid for by UNFPA and UNAIDS in Wave 1 are no longer there since the sponsor pulled out, Metro FM is producing more of its own slots in Wave 2.
Radio Citizen – a private Nairobi based station with partial national coverage – shows an increase of HIV slots from 3 in Wave 1 to 16 in Wave 2, with content diversified in Wave 2 to include the voices of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs), condoms, and rape, a topic that is rarely talked about.
On Kiss FM and Capital FM – private stations that Internews hardly worked with at the time – HIV/AIDS coverage remains minimal in both waves.

Preliminary results of Wave 3 point towards a further increase in the amount of un-sponsored HIV/AIDS programs broadcast on Kenya radio stations and towards a wider variety of HIV-related topics being covered.

One of the key implications of the above results is that a long-term media capacity building strategy seems to be far more effective in communication for development than the once-off sponsoring of HIV/AIDS programs. Sponsorships are not sustainable, resulting in such programs not being continuous. Throughout the study, the quality of sponsored radio programs, such as those sponsored by UNAIDS and UNFPA, proved to be much lower than those of un-sponsored programs. In these two cases, airtime was bought, but the programs were still produced by the stations themselves. In other words, UNAIDS and UNFPA did not provide pre-packaged programs that were then merely transmitted by the stations. Stations seem to take less responsibility for the quality of such programs. They don’t seem to take ownership thereof, as it actually “belongs” to the sponsor. There also seems to be a perception that as long as the name of the sponsor gets mentioned a sufficient number of times during the sponsored time slot and HIV/AIDS is addressed in some way or another, the job has been done.

With programs that were self initiated by the journalist or talk show presenter, and produced by trained media professionals with the help of Internews resources, the quality was significantly higher. Producers seemed to have taken ownership of the programs, resulting in higher quality.

How did this particular communications intervention impact on the development issue? In other words, how did the increased frequency and improved quality of the HIV/AIDS radio features and programs airing assist in curbing the spread of HIV in Kenya, or mitigate the impact of the epidemic on Kenyan society?

As previously mentioned, the news media’s direct impact on people’s perception of the AIDS pandemic, is well documented. It is one of the main means of distributing accurate information on HIV, information which people can use to protect themselves, or use to gain access to effective treatment plans. But, if the media spreads inaccurate information, the consequences can be devastating: it can have a severely negative impact on HIV prevention, care and treatment programs. Even the best designed AIDS intervention can fall prey to rumors, misperceptions, or misinformation. The best services in the world won’t be effective if no one knows about them or is afraid to use them.

In 2003, many Kenyans stopped visiting voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) centers after the news media consistently reported that rapid HIV tests were producing inaccurate results. The sources of these reports were laboratory technicians who were unhappy about the money they were losing on carrying out ELISA tests. VCT centers, it seemed, took away their business. The story was first published in one of the country’s largest daily newspapers, The Standard (Malan 2005b). Radio stations followed with early morning bulletins quoting the newspaper. The story spread rapidly. By lunchtime, the news about “inaccurate HIV tests” led almost every radio and television channels’ news bulletin.

The misleading and damaging stories were published as a direct result of two things: 1) poor journalism on the part of the news media and 2) poor media relations on the part of the local AIDS organizations.

Had the journalist who first published the story had the knowledge and access to reliable sources among the medical and VCT professionals, this fiasco could have been prevented. The newspaper journalist who broke the story should have at least asked the opinion of the VCT expert to explain the real facts and politics of the AIDS world to him.

Another example of how damaging the dissemination of inaccurate information by the media can be, is the way in which Kenyan journalists handled the inaccurate statements of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dr. Wangari Maathai and then Deputy Minister of Environment in late 2004. Dr. Maathai addressed a public workshop in Nyeri outside of Nairobi claiming that condoms were not effective in preventing HIV, with the following statement: “If a doctor operating on an HIV/AIDS infected patient puts on three pairs of gloves when operating, how is just one condom expected to prevent the disease. These gadgets have been known to burst and tear!”(Maathai stated in Kareithi 2004:3).Her statements were widely reported in the local media – Kenyans attach a lot of value to what she says and the Nobel Prize instantly propelled her into the spotlight as one of the country’s most widely known role models. But news reports merely quoted her inaccurate statements - no counterpart explanation, interpretation, or criticism was provided.

At the time, only one local media report was critical of Maathai: that of a freelance journalist that however failed to provide corrected information on condoms to counter Maathai’s assertions.

Letters written by confused Kenyans soon appeared in the local media. Many – by this time - supported the respected Deputy Minister’s controversial theories. Following the announcement of Maathai’s Nobel Peace Prize triumph, reams of tributes were published in newspapers across Africa; she was interviewed on radio and television in Kenya without a single mention of, nor effort to challenge, her highly inflammatory statements on AIDS.

The damaged had been done. Even today, many Kenyans remain confused. Some are no longer sure whether condoms are an effective tool in preventing HIV infection. The uncertainty is reflected in readers’ letters to the newspapers; the confusion can be heard on radio phone-in interviews.

But, with the right support and guidance, the media can distribute accurate information and stimulate informed discussion that can in turn impact positively on health and development issues. Radio programs can have a significant impact on key decisions of policy makers. It is commonly accepted that the media have the power to set the agenda for public discussion of issues, to decide what is important and should receive attention (Lupton1994; McCombs 1997).

“A Stitch in Time” is a weekly AIDS program that is broadcast on the English Service of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation or the KBC. Three years ago it was a 15 - minute prerecorded program broadcast on Sunday evenings at 7:30 pm. It had a very low listenership and no audience participation. Presenters were not well versed with HIV/AIDS issues and their interviewing skills were lacking.

Internews has since trained the show’s producer, Ann Mikia, as well as a new presenter, Sammy Muraya. The project also assisted Ms. Mikia with proposal writing skills in order to negotiate with her editor for more air time and a better time of broadcast and provided her with a cell phone card to receive call-ins and text messages for her program. These simple infusions of support have gone a long way. In 2005, Ms Mikia and Mr Muraya won the Union for Radio and Television Networks (URTNA) award for the best radio program on HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The program is now an hour-long live program airing on Thursday mornings at 11am. We have trained Ms. Mikia on how to give her program a human face that attracts listeners and assisted her in building a production team. “A Stitch in Time” receives on average of 50 text messages and call-ins per program from listeners all over Kenya. The program has become one of the most popular programs on the KBC. In fact, it’s often booked out with subjects and guests two to three weeks ahead of time.

The investment Internews made in building the capacity of talk show team Mikia and Muraya has multiple impact. Ms Mikia and her presenter, Sammy Muraya, have assisted with Internews workshops as co-trainers. And Ms Mikia has also used her skills to train an entire production team at the KBC radio station.

Two examples of the impact that this same radio program, A Stitch in Time, has had on HIV/AIDS at the policy level:

In early 2005, a program was broadcast on the lack of HIV prevention, care and support programs among public minibus taxi drivers, also called matatus, in Kenya. The National AIDS Control Council (NACC) participated along with the Matatu Driver’s Association and school girls who told their stories of sexual abuse by matatu drivers. A few months later, the government implemented a prevention, care and support program among matatu drivers. The AIDS Control Council has publicly acknowledged that the radio program “A Stitch in Time” was one of the main driving forces behind this decision. ³
Earlier this year, several radio programs were devoted to the issue of discrimination against teachers living with HIV and AIDS in Kenya. Teachers from the Kenya Network for HIV-positive teachers, KENEPOTE, participated in the radio programs. Fear of stigma and discrimination often prevents teachers from accessing the support and treatment they need so they can continue their work. The radio programs have had a direct impact on the lives of teachers living with HIV/AIDS – some of whom called in to the shows and received on-air counseling-- others accessing help and support for the first time.

Sometimes it’s as simple as talking openly and honestly about a subject that was previously taboo that can have a catalytic effect when it hits the airwaves:

* Sandra Ndonye, a radio broadcaster on Metro FM, featured on her program a teen girl living with HIV who had been molested by her father and had gotten help to stop the abuse. In Nyeri, a young listener, also a victim of abuse, heard the broadcast and phoned the radio station to ask for help. In response, Ndonye enlisted the services of a counselor, went with the girl to get an HIV test, and contacted an organization for legal assistance. The girl’s abuser was convicted and jailed. Ndonye told Internews that this experience made her realize “the power of putting human voices on air that talk about real-life experiences of HIV.”

Value-added of Communication for Development

The results noted above clearly demonstrate that the media can significantly contribute towards development objectives. In fact, it’s impossible for development needs to be addressed effectively, without involving the local media.

Follow-up, in terms of resources and support that the Local Voices project provides after trainings appears to be the crucial ingredient for success. Radio professionals who have been trained by Internews have free, ongoing access to our media resource center, computers, phones, radio studio and staff who assist them with scriptwriting, research and editing of their programs. Internews never produces programs on journalists’ behalf. The programs are produced by the radio professionals themselves, and the copyright belongs to them. The development of local capacity and in effect expanding these local journalists’ skills rather than substituting it – is a strong principal of the approach.

During trainings, journalism skills building receives as much attention as HIV/AIDS information, if not more. There is no sense in giving a journalist or talk show host information on HIV without also providing them with the skills to tell good stories with their newly acquired knowledge.

At no time did the project sponsor air time. The Local Voices Project has found that sponsorships are not sustainable. Radio stations begin to rely on funds from international agencies which come and go and are reluctant to produce AIDS programs without these funds – creating a vicious cycle of dependency. During the needs assessment, the researchers found a consistent perception and attitude among radio management that ‘the AIDS NGOs have lots of money and they should therefore pay for AIDS coverage’. Local Voices rather helps journalists to enhance their knowledge and skills and provides some simple, yet essential resources, enabling them to broadcast radio programs of a high quality, so as to attract listeners and advertisers. In other words, first have a good program that eventually attracts money, as opposed to only doing a story if there is money available. Once the radio station managers see the results – the higher quality of the programs, their increasing popularity with listeners—they then are willing to give, in some cases, a weekly time slot for an AIDS program or a better prime time slot, for example, as it benefits their radio station. They also become willing to give senior reporters time off to attend trainings, because they see tangible results.

One of the lessons learned from the project has been the realization that training journalists on how to effectively communicate HIV/AIDS information is of little use, if non-governmental organizations, government representatives and policy makers do not understand how to communicate with the media effectively. In Kenya, it became obvious that these organizations have little knowledge on how to adequately involve the media in communicating their goals and messages. They tend to only call upon the media when there’s a ribbon cutting event or the Minister makes a statement, losing sight of what the key issues are that they need to communicate, or the fact that their everyday work in communities is in itself a story worth telling. The Internews needs assessment also revealed a general mistrust of the media on the part of the NGOs and a similar mistrust of the NGOs on the part of the media.

One example that illustrates this well is the example mentioned above of Dr. Wangari Maathai. One of the reasons why no serious challenges to Dr. Maathai’s potentially dangerous statements appeared in the local media, was because no AIDS non-governmental organization or scientist attempted to publicly criticize her.

Local radio producer Anne Waithera attempted to get critical comments from local experts, but “not one AIDS organization gave an alternative view (Waithera 2004 quoted in Malan 2005a:175)” that she could use in her weekly HIV/AIDS program. “Everyone kept quiet about it! NGOs should have made themselves heard, but they were not fulfilling their role”, recalls Waithera.

This example of misinformation about HIV/AIDS without adequate response is closely related to the capacity of NGOs to use the media as an advocacy tool. The media is a strong reflection of the environment in which it develops and operates, impacting the fight against HIV/AIDS either negatively or positively (Malan, 2004)

Incidents like these pointed to a serious need to have these groups trained as well in effective communications and media relations. It also pointed towards a broader need: that such organizations rarely have media strategies - often they don’t even have media liaison officers. On a policy level, this needs to change.

The Local Voices project has made some progress in bringing these groups closer together in Kenya so that the media begin to see at least some of the NGOs – both local and international -- as important and useful sources for their reporting, and the NGOs on their part begin to see how reaching out to certain media professionals and cultivating relationships with the ones who are most experienced on HIV issues can help get their issues aired.

One such example is that of a project run by an international NGO called the Policy Project that assists Kenyan widows who are living with HIV/AIDS or have lost their husbands to AIDS to get back their land. World AIDS Day in Kenya in 2005 was marked with seven radio stations telling the stories of disinherited AIDS widows who have managed to get back their deceased husbands’ land (Malan&Gold 2005). The radio stations were flooded with text messages from people condemning the practice of disinheritance and listeners eager to learn about their rights. Moreover, there were several follow-up stories on the issue after World AIDS Day and they still continue. This all happened as a direct result of a two-day training in Nairobi for senior journalists focusing on this issue which was co-organized by Internews and the Policy Project. Prior to the two day training, Policy Country Director Angeline Siparo and HIV/AIDS Coordinator Ester Gatua each attended a weeklong Internews training on effective media relations.

Both Siparo and Gatua admitted to distrusting the Kenyan news media and lacking knowledge on how to reach out to journalists with for instance writing media releases with appealing news angles prior to their training. But following the extensive trainings, they noted a considerable difference in their interactions with the media. Their knowledge has also been transferred to other Policy funded projects with local NGOs such as the Empowerment Network for People living with HIV/AIDS (NEPHAK) and the Kenya Network for Positive Teachers (KENEPOTE), which has since received considerable and consistent media coverage for their issues as well, adding their diverse voices to the dialogue.

Lessons Learned for Development Policy and Practice

The Local Voices approach and methodology has broader implications for how we incorporate communication into development policy and practice. The project engages the media as a long-term partner and significant contributor to confronting HIV/AIDS in a country. It views the media as more than just a vehicle for disseminating public health information. It views the local media as a significant force in helping societies to cope with the epidemic, and therefore one worth investing in as a long-term strategy. Equipping the media with the skills and resources to take on this complex issue for years to come is proving to be a far more sustainable approach than one - time campaigns or donor sponsored programs. Of course, it doesn’t stop with HIV/AIDS. The media professionals-- now armed with newly acquired skills, confidence and resources-- can then begin to apply these to reporting more effectively on other health and development issues, be it malaria, the environment, education, or any other social issue.

One of the challenges we constantly face in this approach is the “numbers” game. Convincing donors and funders that herding 40 journalists into a room for “training” is not nearly as effective in the long run as a practical, hands-on intensive training for 6 to 8 with follow up support. The real indication of effectiveness to donors should be the number of quality stories or programs that get produced and broadcast over a long term period. The amount of stories that 6 journalists who have received intensive training and follow-up, produce, is often double or even triple, of that of 20 journalists who have received once off training with limited follow-up.

But we’ve also seen that programs won’t be effective unless one takes into account from the outset the reality of the local media environment. In some African countries, it is common practice for a journalist not to receive his pay for weeks at a time. Some media owners cannot or will not pay their journalists a living wage. This cripples ethical, professional news coverage (Hume, 2004). It’s also quite common for this same journalist to accept payment from a health minister or from anyone claiming to have come up with a cure for AIDS in exchange for writing the story they want. After all, the journalist needs money to survive. In radio stations we’ve visited in Nigeria, we saw situations where only the managing director of the station has a computer on his desk, and a journalist will be given taxi fare to cover a football match, but not to cover an AIDS story. This is the reality of the media environment in a number of countries and it makes no sense to attempt to work with local media in a country without first having a thorough understanding of the local media context. The Local Voices project deliberately tried to address many of the constraints the journalists face in their daily work and that has made a huge difference. But it also points to the need for more general media development work that takes a holistic approach to the media sector in a country – factoring in the economic, legal and political environment in which local media operates. Programs also need management participation in order to be effective.

While radio remains the most pervasive of the electronic communications media and a powerful force to confront development challenges, radio outside the state-owned systems has been a much more recent development in Africa and lags behind the print media in its journalistic professionalism (Buckley 2000). During discussions with Kenyan radio station managers in the needs assessment phase, it was repeatedly stated that “a nice voice and a particular accent” was enough to qualify one to be a radio broadcaster. Preparation in journalism studies seemed to be irrelevant. Radio remains a powerful force to confront the health and social challenges posed by HIV/AIDS as well as other development issues, but there’s a great need to improve radio reporting and programming (Adam&Harford 1999).

It is essential to provide journalists with the resources they need to produce more high-quality stories following the trainings. It is of little use to train radio professionals and send them back to environments where they don’t have access to equipment and mentors who can assist them in applying their newfound skills. Media Resource Centers with permanent access to a senior journalism trainer can serve such a purpose well. Providing journalists access to a media resource center has been extremely effective in our Nairobi based project, where the media is so centrally located in Nairobi, and probably not quite as effective in Abuja, Nigeria as the media is more heavily concentrated in Lagos.

Ultimately projects such as these should be handed over to local journalists themselves. Providing equipment to radio stations is a still a challenge, as it is difficult to control the use thereof. The creation of local health journalism organizations, that is representative of all media organizations, may be a good start and possible solution.

Many media outlets around the world cannot afford to have a dedicated health reporter who has the knowledge, experience, and time to consistently track and effectively cover health issues. In Internews’ experience, newspapers are more likely to have this kind of position as compared to television and radio. Funding this type of dedicated health correspondent position at a radio or television station would be a much more effective use of funder dollars, for example, than sponsoring a radio program that may be of poor quality and gone in 3 months, or yet another fly in- fly out training workshop.

REFERENCES

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Finlay, Alan (2004), “Shaping the Conflict: Factors Influencing the Representation of Conflict around HIV/AIDS Policy in the South African Press”, Perinatal HIV Research Unit and Journalism Program Research Fellow Paper, University of Witwatersrand, <www.journalism.co.za> [accessed 20 October 2005].

Gordan, Adam&Harford, Nicola (1999), Radio and HIV/AIDS: Making a Difference by Gordon Adam and Nicola Harford, UNAIDS and Media Action International: Geneva.

Kareithi, A (1994), “Disease ‘A Weapon to Wipe out Blacks’”, The Standard, 31 August 2004:3.

Kinsella, James (1989). Covering the Plague: AIDS and the American Media, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Lupton, Deborah (1994), Moral Threats and Dangerous Desires: AIDS in the News Media,,London:Taylor&Francis.

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Malan, Mia (2005a), “Quid Pro Quid: A Journalistic Look at NGO-Media Interaction in Africa”, The Brown Journal of World Affairs, XI (II), Winter/Spring: 173-184.

Malan, Mia (2005b), “Media Tips for NGOs”, Maisha!, Quarterly Magazine of the National AIDS Control Council, 6:21, October-December.

Malan&Gold (2005), “Stories of Hope Told on Aid: Women Widowed by AIDS Get Back Their Land”, www.internews.org/news/2005/20051202_kenya.html> [accessed 30 January 2006).

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Shilts, Randy (1987). And the Band Played on: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic, London: Pengiun Books.

¹ Collins, Huntly (2005), “The Media as Tool to Combat HIV/AIDS in Africa”, 14th International Conference on HIV/AIDS and STDs in Africa (Abuja), Paper presented at the UNAIDS/World Bank pre-conference session on AIDS and the Media. The full paper can be obtained from Ms Collins at HuntlyCollins@att.net

² A needs assessment conducted by Internews Senior HIV/AIDS and Health Journalism Advisor, Elizabeth Gold and Africa Regional Director Mark Frohardt in June-July 2001. Full details can be obtained from Elizabeth Gold at lgold@internews.org

³ The edition of A Stitch in Time (July 2005) on which The National AIDS Control Council’s public relations and communications officer, Mr Abel Nyagwa, acknowledged the program’s contribution in the launch of a national prevention program among matatu driver, is available from the Internews Kenya archive in Nairobi. More information about the prevention program, called “Awareness Amongs Matatu Drivers” can be obtained from Mr Nyagwa at email address anyagwa@nacc.or.ke.