AEGiS-BKREV: Television, AIDS and Risk: A Cultural Studies Approach to Health Communication

(BKREV) Television, AIDS and Risk: A Cultural Studies Approach to Health Communication

Allen & Unwin/Paul & Co. Publishers Consortium, PO Box 442, Concord, MA 01742. 236p., illus., bibliog., index. (Australian Cu ltural Studies). ISBN 1-86448-224-9. $29.95.
John Tulloch, Deborah Lupton. 1997.

"This book addresses the ways in which meanings and images of HIV/AIDS are communicated via television." Tulloch and Lupton argue that the media of television contributes to a great extent the awareness of risk, danger and uncertainty, including crime, a ccidents, hazards, diseases, upheavals, natural disaster, wars, and environmental pollution. They also state "that it is through society and culture that we make sense of this phenomenon, understand it and experience it." Television is a cultural produc t and it is through television that awareness can be made. "In this book, as the title suggests, we continually point to the need to understand the role of culture when analysing the ways in which television portrayals of HIV/AIDS, sexuality and injectin g drug use are constructed and interpreted." They emphasize the complex nature of this role that television has taken.

In the first chapter, "Television, AIDS and Cultural Analysis," Tulloch and Lupton provide the cultural perspective and explain their empirical research approach. In the second chapter, "AIDS on Television: Text and Context," advertising and television drama are looked at. Chapter three, "Making AIDS Television: Expert Cultures/Production Cultures," the state/marketing interface is explored as well as looking more into the production of Sophie. The last chapter, "Viewing AIDS Television: Audience Re sponse," one learns of general responses to the production of the Grim Reaper, testimonials, condoms, and other televised advertisements and productions.

"To conclude, the production and reception of meanings in relation to television AIDS texts are inevitably embedded in social and cultural processes. These include the cultures of production that work to shape the content of such texts, such as the unde rstandings of health promotion and media among public health bureaucrats and their marketing research and advertising consultants, as well as the professional objectives, intertexts, concerns and constraints of television workers in making television dram a." A highly recommended book for all academic libraries.

Keywords: Television in Health Education; Australia; Mass Media; Health Risk Communication; Prevention

Copyright (c) 1999 - Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Reviews may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting, redistribution , or translation, address requests to H. Robert Malinowsky, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, PO Box 8198, Chicago, IL 60680 or electronically to hrm@uic.edu.
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Copyright © 1999 - The University of Illinois at Chicago. All materials in the journal are subject to copyright by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting, redistribution, or translation, address requests to H. Robert Malinowsky, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, PO Box 8198, Chicago, IL 60680 or electronically to hrm@uic.edu.

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