Reporting on HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh: Media Content Analysis

Introduction
While HIV/AIDS is a key health issue in the world, the role of media is very important to create awareness against the fatal disease. In several studies in the area of communication, it was found that mass media can be used for informing and awareness building of any issue, though interpersonal level of communication could be the best way for persuasion and behavioral change of people. On the other hand, the capacity of mass media in influencing behavior is no less important in respect to its cost-effective nature and its cumulative effect on the population. For Bangladesh, standing in the edge of the risk of spreading HIV/AIDS in epidemic form, awareness building program through mass media could play very important role. For that, in spite of program taken by GOs and NGOs, it is important to examine the content and standard of reporting in mass media of Bangladesh in the area of HIV/AIDS. As there was no comprehensive study in the area of above mentioned topic, this study is going to explore some aspects in the area, though it may bear some limitations.

Bangladesh and HIV/AIDS
Bangladesh is said to be a country of low prevalence but high risk for HIV/AIDS. The first HIV/AIDS case was detected in the country in 1989. Bangladesh has a population of around 14 million. According to Bangladesh government, in this country the number of people living with AIDS (PLWHAs) are only 500, by December 2004, a total of 465 people were confirmed as HIV positive 87 of whom developed AIDS and among them 44 have died. But WHO said there are 20,000 HIV infected persons in Bangladesh and according to UNICEF the figure is 15,000.
Some important high-risk factors for spread of HIV in Bangladesh are: poverty and population density, highly affected neighboring countries with HIV/AIDS, inadequate awareness among high risk group and general population, high external and internal migration, unsafe blood transfusion and injection practices, significant number of people have pre or extra marital sex etc.
Bangladesh government has taken National AIDS/STD Program (NASP) to reduce the spread of HIV and impact of AIDS for the high-risk group as well as the general population of Bangladesh by undertaking targeted interventions among the high-risk groups and making general population aware about HIV/AIDS.

Print Media in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has a very extensive and relatively free print media, comprising of 990 publications among which, there are 328 dailies. The newspaper readership among the total population is 26%. (BCDJC, 2004) Just after the landmark of 1990, when Bangladesh entered into a democratic process after an urban-based revolution against an autocratic government, there was a ‘boom’ of print media. Even now, two or three newspapers are adding themselves in the row every year. Though Bangladesh is a country of 140 millions of people, only about 1.3 million of copies of newspapers are sold daily. (BCDJC, 2004)
There is no in-depth study so far of the media coverage on HIV/AIDS issue, but it is very much evident that Bangladeshi media covers the issue frequently as the Bangladesh government and NGOs are working on the issue for years. But the standard and depth of the news stories are yet to examine.

Methodology and Objective
In this research, all HIV/AIDS related news items (282 items) published between July-October 2005 in 17 local newspapers (9 of which in local language and 8 in English) of Bangladesh, have been analyzed where quantitative data are provided on aspects such as story subject matter, length, placement in newspaper, source of the item and inclusion of PLWHA viewpoints. The time period for examining HIV/AIDS reporting in Bangladeshi newspapers was selected in random basis with the expectation that all items of almost all leading newspapers published in any quarter of a year would be representative enough to get an impression about the content and qualitative standard of the reporting.
The objective of the media content surveys, conducted between July-October 2005, was to gain a deeper understanding of the frequency and quality of local reporting on HIV/AIDS and in particular to investigate the use of language and inaccuracies in the reporting.
A random selection of the collected stories is also qualitatively assessed. Stories are evaluated on both journalistic quality and on their HIV/AIDS content.

Quantitative Analysis of Data
• English newspapers publish more news than Bangla newspapers, but their sources of news on HIV/AIDS are heavily external. For example, The New Nation has published as many as 47 items but only 5 of them were from internal sources. But though Bangla newspapers publish a few number of news on HIV/AIDS, they try to publish those from internal sources.
• Out of 6 1st page news, a Bangla newspaper named Bhorer Kagojpublishes 4 of them, though 3 of them were of single column. The poor number of 1st page news depicts the newspaper houses don’t consider HIV/AIDS a key health issue of the time.
• Among English newspapers, The New Nation published maximum number of news (43) and The New Age published minimum number of news (9) on HIV/AIDS. The news Today (26), The Bangladesh Today (26), The Independent (33) and The Bangladesh Observer (34) also published significant number of news item on HIV/AIDS. Among Bangla newspapers, The Bhorer Kagoj published maximum number of news (19) and The Ajker Kagoj published minimum number of news (3) on HIV/AIDS.
• Apart from news, there have been published a total number of 22 comments and features. But Out of 22 there were only 3 editorials, which reflects sort of policy level negligence on HIV/AIDS issue.
• Though the leading English and Bangla daily The Daily Star (11) and The Prothom Alo (4) published very few number of news item, but the news of these two newspapers were comparatively elaborative, in-depth and by-lined.

Qualitative analysis
For qualitative analysis, 17 news (2 foreign stories included) have been selected from 17 newspapers. Although a significant number of stories (13.5%) were too brief (of 1 column and 1 paragraph) and those stories were badly written (i.e. the content just describe ‘seminar/workshop/round table meeting held’, doesn’t describe what was found/said/discussed in that meeting), for qualitative analysis comparatively important and bigger news have been selected in random basis.
The sample were scored for:
• Story construction (newsworthiness, structure, lead well written, answers who what where why when); provides background.
• Story content (accuracy, reporters views absent; information correctly attributed); provides a full and fair picture; information is clear; quotes used effectively); tone is appropriate;
• HIV/AIDS related content (avoids stigmatizing language; coverage of PLWHA empowering rather than victimizing; information is accurate; local voices appropriately used.
• Presentation (headline well written; layout good; appropriate length)
The researcher scored a random selection if 17 better stories as follows :
• Average score on overall quality: 71.5%
• Story construction: 75.3%
• Story content: 75.3%
• HIV/AIDS related content: 61.2%
• Presentation: 72.9%

General Trends in HIV/AIDS Reporting in Bangladesh
While HIV/AIDS appears as a topic fairly regularly in print media of Bangladesh, the coverage lacks breadth and depth and some key aspects of the issue rarely appear or are absent. A significant amount of inaccurate and stigmatizing terminology appears in the reporting and viewpoints of PLWHA are barely covered. General story-writing standards are weak (for example story construction, accuracy, and writing the lead) though some stories were found in standard. It was also noticed that little independent research by journalists is evident; journalists tend to rely heavily on news releases from government, NGOs and foreign news agencies for their stories, rather than taking the initiative to investigate the issue independently.

Conclusions
Given the great social, economic and human suffering costs the HIV/AIDS, the results suggests that the Bangladeshi press is still significantly under and inadequately reporting the issues.

The press in Bangladesh needs to develop and focus on:
• Improving awareness and usage of non-stigmatizing terminology (glossary provision and distribution).
• Improving awareness around the relationship with PLWHA with a view to increasing their voice and reducing stigma.
• Improving journalists general knowledge and interest around HIV/AIDS issues and pointing towards potential story angles, tailored to particular country situation.
• Avoiding publishing news taken from external sources and providing staff articles for meaningful coverage.
• Strengthening general journalism skills (writing, story construction and development, etc)
• Encouraging the writing of features, editorial, the practice of independent research.

Reference
BCDJC (Bangladesh Centre for Development, Journalism and Communication) (2004); Madhyam (Bangladesh Media Directory); Dhaka: BCDJC.

Note: This is an excerpt from a research article of the same title conducted by Fahmidul Haq.