Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reregulation of Commercial Television: Implications for Coverage of AIDS
AIDS & Public Policy Journal 5, no. 2 (Spring 1990): 82-88 Cathy Packer and Susan Kauffman
The mass media have been criticized for not doing a better job of educating the public about AIDS. During the first years of the epidemic, they were criticized for ignoring the epidemic. Although coverage has increased dramatically since the, critics have continued to ridicule the mass media for AIDS coverage that they say is too sensational or too shallow or that misrepresents the risks faced by various social groups. Some commentators have also suggested that there has not been enough coverage of AIDS. Television in particular has been criticized for skirting the sensitive sexual issues surrounding the disease. During the same six years television has covered AIDS, the medium has been gradually and substantially deregulated by the federal government. Although the FCC has deregulated many aspects of commercial broadcasting, members of Congress and some others continue to argue that broadcasters must be reregulated because they will not otherwise air socially responsible programming. Two important questions addressed here are whether, as a result of deregulation, broadcasters feel less pressure to determine and meet community problems and needs and whether they believe that reregulation would improve their coverage of AIDS. Accordingly, we surveyed television reporters and management to explore the extent to which these personnel believe that deregulation has affected television coverage of AIDS. In in-depth interviews, station personnel were asked how specific deregulatory measures have affected their station's performance in general and their AIDS coverage in particular. This study is based on interviews with the employees of commercial television stations in Boston and Raleigh-Durham.
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Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
