From complacency to panic: AIDS and heterosexuals in the Australian press, July 1986 to June 1988

AIDS is a disease which has received a great deal of attentionfrom the popular media, which in turn has attracted the interestsof those who analyse media. The health information conveyedto the general public by the popular press is a topic of specialinterest to health educators. This paper documents the Australianpress' coverage of the AIDS threat to heterosexuals. The preliminaryfindings of a content analysis of all Australian articles mentioningAIDS published between June 1986 and July 1988 is reported.An overview of the issues gaining most attention in the pressduring that time is given and major narrative themes discussed.It is shown that the focus of the popular press' reporting ofAIDS changed in that time from representing AIDS as a risk toonly homosexuals and intravenous drug users, to generating panic-strickenarticles suggesting that everyone was now threatened. The pressgenerally lent their support to a major public health informationcampaign designed to warn heterosexuals of their risk of contractingAIDS (the ‘Grim Reaper’ campaign), although manyatricles exaggerated the threat and disseminated confusing informationabout the risk. Health educators need to have a good knowledgeof press accounts of health issues, and be aware of the potentialfor support of coinflicting information in the press both ofhealth education campaigns and of the health issue itself.