Setting the public health agenda on major diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa: African popular magazines and medical journals, 1981-1997

• Published in: Journal of communication Vol. 52; no. 4; pp. 889 - 904
• Main Authors: PRATT, Cornelius B, HA, Louisa, PRATT, Charlotte A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, MA Blackwell 01.12.2002; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: AIDS; Cognitive problems, arts and sciences, folk traditions, folklore; Communication; Diseases; Ethnology; Health; HIV; Media; Medicine; Periodicals; Portrayal; Public health; Publishing; Sub-Saharan Africa; SubSaharan Africa; Traditional and modern medicine; public health; Traditional sciences and medicine; Subsaharian Africa; Malaria; Media coverage; Prophylaxis; Leprosy; Magazines; Media; AIDS; Representation; Information; Infectious disease; Health policy; Occupational Press; Tuberculosis; Measles
• ISSN: 0021-9916; 1460-2466
• DOI: 10.1093/joc/52.4.889

This study investigates changes in the amount of media coverage and in the framing of 5 major infectious diseases in Africa in 4 sub-Saharan African magazines and medical journals. During a 17-year period (1981-1997), HIV/AIDS, a stigmal disease, dominated the coverage from the early to the mid-1990s; however, there was a paucity of such news items in the early 1980s. Nonstigmal diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis, received much less coverage in proportion to their occurrences. In popular magazines, AIDS was framed as a homosexual, deadly, and lethal disease--but not as such in medical journals. This article presents implications and strategic lessons of those findings for the agenda-setting role of sub-Saharan African media organizations and public health agencies. It also recommends norms for African media's reporting of health issues.