Washington File - March 1, 2004

The Kaiser Family Foundation released the study March 1 in partnership with Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The study analyzed media coverage from 1981 to 2002, focusing on selected major media, print and broadcast, and examined more than 9000 news stories. The study found a peak amount of media coverage of HIV/AIDS in 1987, when an average of 600 stories per month appeared in the selected outlets combined. By 2002, that number had declined to fewer than 200 stories a month.

The study, "AIDS at 21: Media Coverage of the HIV Epidemic 1981-2002," also found that the people living with HIV/AIDS who were highlighted in U.S. coverage did not accurately represent the minority populations most affected by the disease in this country.

Coverage has had an increasing focus on non-U.S. populations, especially Africans and Asians.

The study is available at http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/AIDSat21.cfm

Following is the text of the press release:

Kaiser Family Foundation

22-YEAR ANALYSIS SHOWS OVERALL MEDIA COVERAGE OF HIV/AIDS DECREASING, BUT FOCUS ON GLOBAL EPIDEMIC INCREASING

People Most Affected by HIV/AIDS Are Rarely the Focus of Media Coverage

Menlo Park, CA - Are the media experiencing "AIDS fatigue?" A new Kaiser Family Foundation study examining 22 years of news coverage finds that overall media coverage is decreasing, while the amount of coverage of the global epidemic is increasing.

AIDS at 21: Media Coverage of the HIV Epidemic 1981-2002 also finds that specific populations disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in the U.S., such as gay men, teenagers and young adults, minorities, and women, were the focus of only a small amount of the news coverage.

"In the United States, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has moved from being an absolute death sentence to more of a chronic disease and one with an increasing presence in minority communities," said Mollyann Brodie, Ph.D., Vice President and Director of Public Opinion and Media Research at the Foundation. "The challenge for reporters interested in writing about HIV is to explore new news angles and for those fighting the epidemic, the challenge is to find new ways to tell the story."

Key findings of the study include:

Decline in Total Coverage. Total media coverage of HIV/AIDS increased during the early 1980's, peaked in 1987, and declined steadily through 2001. While this decline in coverage seems to mirror a decline in new AIDS cases in the U.S., it began about six years before the decline in cases, and continued even as the cumulative number of AIDS cases in the U.S. rose above 500,000. Minor peaks in coverage after 1987 coincided with major developments in the epidemic, occurring in 1991 (Magic Johnson's announcement that he was HIV positive), 1996 (the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy), and 2001 (increased attention to the global epidemic).

Shift Away from U.S. Focus. Coverage was mainly U.S.-focused throughout the time period, but this has shifted recently, as the proportion of stories with at least some global focus increased dramatically, starting in 2000, accompanied by a decline in attention to the domestic story.

Changes in Portrayal of Affected Population. Over time, there was a decrease in media coverage focused on the U.S. population and an increase in attention to the world and non-U.S. populations generally and African and Asian nations' populations in particular. This shift largely tracks with the shift in story focus to the global epidemic over time. Perhaps surprisingly, HIV/AIDS never became a story only about gay men, who were the focus of only 4% of stories overall. Other subgroups, such as minorities and women, disproportionately affected by the epidemic also received relatively little attention.

Similarly, images used in broadcast stories only rarely reflected specific populations affected by HIV/AIDS. In an analysis of the "face of AIDS" as visually depicted in broadcast news, the most frequently portrayed population was health care professionals (20% of broadcast stories), while gay men were the on-camera focus of 3% of stories, teenagers and young adults (3%), minorities (1%) and women (1%).

Changes in Story Topics. Over time, stories about HIV transmission and social issues such as discrimination and housing declined, as stories focusing on government funding/financing for HIV/AIDS and philanthropic fundraising efforts increased.

Timeline Events. Coverage generally reflected key events that have occurred throughout the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, including the initial CDC reports about AIDS, the closing of San Francisco bathhouses, Magic Johnson's announcement that he was HIV positive, the introduction of protease inhibitors/highly active antiretroviral therapy, and HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Consumer Education. The study also finds a decreasing number of stories with a consumer education component. Previous national surveys of the public have found a lack of knowledge about HIV transmission among a significant minority of the U.S. population. This raises the ever-present question of the appropriate role of journalists, especially in the context of a public health epidemic: to what extent do the media have a responsibility to educate the public, as opposed to focusing only on reporting the news?

"The lack of focus on those most affected by HIV/AIDS occurs at the same time as we see in other surveys that personal concern about the epidemic among African-Americans and Latinos is down," said Jennifer Kates, M.A., M.P.A., Director of HIV Policy at the Foundation.

METHODOLOGY

The Kaiser Family Foundation in conjunction with Princeton Survey Research Associates International, conducted a comprehensive examination of media coverage of HIV/AIDS over the time period from the first news reports in 1981 through December 2002. The analysis presented here is based on a sample of more than 9,000 total news stories from major U.S. print and broadcast sources, including four major national newspapers (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and USA Today), three major regional papers in areas particularly hard-hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic (the San Francisco Chronicle, The Miami Herald, and the Los Angeles Times), and three major network news programs (ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News). Stories were also coded from The London Times for comparison to U.S. print media.

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