AIDS in South Florida is an issue that I hadn’t even thought about until today. That’s when it hit me that I’ve rarely read anything in the local paper on AIDS; I’ve never seen the local TV stations cover anything of the sort. Yet, when I decided to do some more research on this issue I ran into several articles from the Miami Herald and the Sun Sentinel, I wondered if these articles were shoved to the back of the paper because I had to actually want to find the coverage to even come across it. Shouldn’t an issue this big be something that is more accessible?
In a Dec. 27 2007 article, the Miami Herald reported that the National Institutes of Health have given the University of Miami and Florida International University federal grants to research the AIDS issue. The article also mentions that South Florida has the fastest growing rate for new AIDS cases. And yet, it still doesn’t warrant more extensive coverage apparently.
Florida has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the nation according to the Center for Disease Control, and yet the reporting here is sparse to say the least. As a challenge, do a search for HIV on the Herald’s website on any given day. More likely than not you’ll come up with few results focusing on what’s happening in South Florida; try not to search for AIDS because you’ll come up with some complete irrelevant articles.
Those who follow the news in South Florida might very well feel like the problem doesn’t affect them or their community. That’s how I felt. It never once crossed my mind that AIDS is an issue in South Florida. I knew it was there but that’s about it. I would be lucky if I stumbled upon a story concerning the issue.
Yes, there is global coverage of AIDS, but local coverage is lacking. Perhaps some editors think that people aren’t interested, or that it will turn people away from their publication. It probably will, but it still needs to be reported. Now this isn’t to say that all the news has to be bad. If an organization is making strides in relief for AIDS sufferers then that’s a story.
The Herald article later devolves into opinions and that’s fine for an op-ed piece but what I gathered from it was that the experts, who aren’t named for some reason, say that Latinos are the reason why the AIDS rate is so high in South Florida. If a big chunk of the population is Latino then they will report HIV or AIDS in higher numbers for the region. I don’t denounce the efforts to target different ethnic with different strategies of AIDS prevention, but make that the point of the story.
AIDS coverage could be done better. The average reader doesn’t read every part of the paper and the average television viewer does other things while watching the evening news, so writing a few articles and shoving them to the back pages or the last minutes of a news broadcast is unfair, and it creates a mindset for readers and viewers that this issue is unimportant.
3 comments:
I like your blog. Like you, I also wondered why AIDS is not being covered in the media more. It seems now that AIDS is a disease of the past although still there is no cure. I think that you should add some pictures and graphics to your page and maybe a video or something of that sort.
What you are saying is interesting, but I think you need to have it higher up in the story. Yes, add some pictures. Thank you for the stats link. I want to learn how to do that for my page. Please get ready to show me how.
Though you seem to focus too much on the Herald rather than Floridian press as a whole, your findings are accurate and shameful. Indeed, AIDS and HIV seem to be back burner material when it comes to coverage here in the state - sad considering the statistics you mention. But more importantly, you actively suggest your readers to look up the issue on their own, a rare prompt that should appear in any other blog. That is the only way people who ignore the facts can verify how lightly the media have taken this phenomenon.
Your blog's presentation is readable, but the blank background and standard font feel too bland. Differently colors in these areas would engage casual readers more readily. Also, a graphic at the start of either your blog or post adds to the visual appeal. Adding your sources would also help. In all, your entry's originality makes it stand out from the rest.
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