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Botswana: Media Must Look Out for Quirk Aids Cures
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
24 July 2008
Posted to the web 24 July 2008
Patricia Maganu
Gabarone
Reporters have been advised to be vigilant when reporting on HIV and AIDS issues. Sunday Standard deputy editor Spencer Mogapi said this at an HIV workshop held in Gaborone last week.
Mogapi was one of the presenters at the 10 day media workshop on 'Media Fatigue and Stigma in Botswana: Changing Hearts, Minds and Behaviours'. He spoke about why most newsrooms seem to no longer value HIV stories.
Mogapi said that stories that were not straight forward, that were full of jargon and did not have a human face seldom made it to the paper because editors look for more creative work concerning real issues and not just statistics.
"We should not pretend to be medical journals. Instead, we should try to communicate as softly as possible," he said.
He added that when reporters interview medical practitioners they should come and turn their notes into something suitable for the reader and refrain from using medical terminology exactly the way it was used by the medical practitioner.
He went on to say that reporters face several challenges when reporting on HIV and AIDS issues.
The workshop was looking to change journalists' mindset on HIV and AIDs issues. He said that media fatigue should not be a problem for reporters.
"There should be no media fatigue in the newsrooms. HIV remains a running story and the best route remains to put a human face to the stories and forget about the statistics," he said.
"Report about how HIV is affecting people living ordinary lives," he added. He went on to say that reporters should try and show that HIV is a challenge to human existence and families instead of running to HIV and AIDS organisations for stories.
"People can no longer farm as much as they would like to because they are infected or affected by HIV so we should not concern ourselves too much with statistics. We should also be on the look out for new angles," said Mogapi.
He added that the media also faces challenges because it may be exploited by people who claimed that they can cure HIV.
"We have to be careful about people walking into our media houses with stories that create false hopes," he stated. He also noted that HIV and AIDS has become an industry with people pretending to be Good Samaritans.
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They set up NGOs and then they go back and ask for funds and that also has been a challenge to the media.
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