Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the meaning of responsible news coverage of the HIV/Aids epidemic with references to Die Burger en The Star. Even though the numbers of HIV positive people are escalating in our country, the media still persist in addressing HIV/Aids news in exactly the same way as any other news, which means that journalists are still detached observers who simply reflect the news of the day. This study emphasizes that the limited success of HIV prevention campaigns should urge the South African society to re-evaluate our approach to addressing HIV/Aids. It is also important to convince the media of its responsibility towards more ethical practices and especially towards greater involvement in this subject. Greater involvement will necessitate the press to re-evaluating some conventional practices as detachment and objectivity. Within this context greater involvement and activism do not have to be synonyms. With greater involvement one would like to emphasize the need for the media to take a few steps closer to the realities of HIV/Aids in order to be able to have a deeper understanding of the complexities of this disease. If one would like to see a difference in the spreading and impact of HIV/Aids on the South African community it is very important that the media will be included in the efforts against HIV/Aids. The media are a powerful and influential institution, which shape the minds and ideas of the society. The majority of South Africans are dependent on the media for most of their information - including HIV/Aids information. The greater involvement and responsibility requires pro-activity of the media and could facilitate the establishment of a better informed, well empowered and involved civil society who would themselves also be prepared to take ownership of HIVand Aids in the South African community. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studie word ondersoek ingestel na wat verantwoordelike mediadekking met betrekking tot MIVNigs sou beteken met spesifieke verwysings na enkele uitgawes van Die Burger en The Star. Onafhanklik van die groeiende epidemie in Suid-Afrika kies die meeste publikasies om MIVNigs nuusdekking steeds soos enige ander nuus te hanteer. Dit beteken dat joernaliste die oogmerk van objektiwiteit nastreef en dus as onbetrokke waarnemers die gebeure van die dag aan die publiek weergee. Hierdie studie beklemtoon die omvang van die MIVNigs krisis en die beperkte sukses van voorkomingsinisiatiewe in Suid-Afrika wat gevolglik ook die media noodsaak om konvensionele joernalistiek praktyke in heroënskou te neem. Indien 'n mens 'n verandering in die verspreiding en impak van MIVNigs op die Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing wil sien, is dit veral nodig om ook die media in die stryd teen MIVNigs te betrek. Die media is 'n invloedryke instelling en die grootste deel van die publiek se inligting - ook oor MIVNigs - word op die inhoud van dagblaaie gebaseer. Dit beklemtoon die verantwoordelikheid wat op die media rus om verantwoordelike en etiese nuusdekking aan die kwessie te gee. Vir die media om optimaal tot die stryd teen MIVNigs by te dra, is dit egter nodig dat die media self betrokke raak en proaktiewe nuusdekking sal nastreef. Met 'n meer betrokke media word nie noodwendig aktivisme bedoel nie, maar dit vra eerder dat die media 'n paar tree nader aan MIVNigs sal gee sodat die epidemie in sy totaliteit beter verstaan kan word. Met so 'n benadering kan die media bydrae tot die vestiging van 'n ingeligte, bemagtige en betrokke gemeenskap wat self ook eienaarskap van MIVNigs begin neem.

Dramatic works from America with AIDS as subject matter have evolved over the past twenty years. In the early 1980s, dramas like Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, William Hoffman's As Is, and Robert Chesley's Night Sweat educated primarily homosexual men about AIDS, its causes, and its effects on the gay community while combating the dominant discourse promoted by the media, government, and medical establishments that AIDS was either unimportant because it affected primarily the homosexual population or because it was attributed to lack of personal responsibility. By the mid-eighties and early nineties, playwrights Terrence McNally (Love! Valour! Compassion!)and Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey)concentrated on relationships between sero-discordant homosexual couples. McNally's "Andre's Mother" and Lips Together, Teeth Apart explored how families and friends face the loss of a loved one to AIDS. Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America epic represents living beyond AIDS as a powerful force. Without change and progress, Angels warns, life stagnates. Angels also introduces the powerful drugs that help alleviate the symptoms of AIDS. AIDS is the centerpiece of the epic, and AIDS and homosexuality are inextricably blended in the play. Rent, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Jonathan Larson, features characters from an assortment of ethnic and social backgrounds - including heterosexuals, homosexuals, bi-sexuals, some with AIDS, some AIDS-free, some drug users - all living through the diverse troubles visited upon them at the turn of the millennium in the East Village of New York City. AIDS is not treated as "special," nor are people with AIDS pandered to. Instead, the characters take what life gives them, and they live fully, because there is "no day but today" ("Finale"). Rent's audiences are as varied as the American population, because it portrays metaphorically what so many Americans face daily - not AIDS per se, but other difficult life problems, including self-alienation. As such, Rent defies the dominant discourse because the community portrayed in Rent is the American community.

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