Bono's Op-Ed piece about AIDS in the New York Times today

[buginme2]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/opinion/a-decade-of-progress-on-aids.html?hpw

[mecch]

Change the title of the thread to include that its about AIDS.

I was just about to post it when I caught that you had.

[tednlou2]

What do you guys think of the media coverage (especially TV where many get their news) about World AIDS Day or HIV/AIDS in general?  The Today Show didn't mention it at all.  Brian Williams did a short interview with Bono on Nightly News.  They constantly do stories about cancer.  The Today Show did another long segment/live interview about the woman missing after her People's Court appearance.  And, you know the People's Court factor isn't why they cover that story every day.  If it was a black woman or man, or a gay person who went missing after being on the show, they wouldn't care.  It just seems if HIV affected more white, straight folks in this country, it would get way more media attention.  If 56,000 white mothers and children were being infected each year in the U.S., I can't imagine more than a couple weeks going by without mention of it.  (I realize white mothers and children make up thousands of those infections, but they still see it as a gay/drug user disease.) 

Having said that, I understand that the virus isn't killing people off like it once did.  And, one could make the argument that no other illness gets the high profile conferences with the likes of presidents and former presidents.  And, no other disease gets funding for meds and doc appts like HIV/AIDS.  The most coverage I saw today was from a local TV station.  And, I watch a lot of national and local news.  I was surprised how much they covered it--giving facts and stats.  I emailed an anchor at the station, with whom I use to work, to thank them for the great coverage.  She said it probably wouldn't have happened, but a producer knows someone with HIV, so it was his doing to cover it in so much detail.       

[Ann]

I agree that there's not much coverage. I didn't see much here in the UK yesterday. In fact on a local level, the last time I can recall hiv being mentioned anywhere in the Isle of Man media was a few years ago when I did a live interview on Manx Radio for WAD. Since then, there's been nothing.

This is an area where it's going to fall to us to get more media attention. We have to step up to the plate and put pressure on our local media outlets to give hiv more attention. We have to be willing to provide accurate, up-to-date information and we have to be willing to be interviewed ourselves. Radio is one media where one can easily remain anonymous to the public at large. 

 Where WAD is concerned, the best course of action would be to start contacting people in September or October at the latest, so they can't tell you they have no room in their schedules.

We really can't sit back and bitch and moan about the lack of coverage if we're not actively trying to rectify the situation ourselves. If WE don't appear to care about it, how can we expect anyone else to appear to care about it? If we are not speaking out, why should/would anyone else?

[leatherman]

Where WAD is concerned, the best course of action would be to start contacting people in September or October at the latest, so they can't tell you they have no room in their schedules.

definitely!

My ASO holds a WAD event (some yrs memorials, some yrs perfomances, some yrs video (HIV/AIDS PSAs) competitions) every year at one of the local colleges. Our committee first meets in Sept. and starts right off the bat by contacting the media (print, local cable, etc) and arranging press coverag. (for our video competition, we even have media figures join our panel of judges - that sure helps ensure that they'll be reporting on the event LOL) By mid-October, we have event flyers and posters really to go (posted in local colleges, laundrymats, salons, churches, etc) along with Facebook, Twitter, and other social media announcements.

Yesterday we were part of a BBC story on HIV/AIDS stigma in the South (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15972527), and had reporters from two local newspapers, along with a videographer/reporter from the local cable news show attend our event. After having seen so little news about WAD in the last few years, seeing so much local news along with the Presidents WAD announcement was very encouraging - even if we had to do a lot of work to get that local coverage.