Abstract

In a little over two decades, the HIV virus has seeped into the bloodstream and consciousness of the world's population, leaving few and little untouched. In addition to constituting an important medical and scientific issue in and of itself, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has also come to represent a "focal point for many of the social ills that plague modern society." In this thesis, I analyse coverage of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa published in English Canadian newspapers between 2000 and 2003. Locating my corpus within the wider discourses surrounding the HIV/AIDS pandemic as well as the study of racism, (neo/post) colonialism and 'Africanism,' and employing Critical Discourse Analysis as my methodological framework, I echo a claim made by leading HIV/AIDS cultural theorist Simon Watney in reference to coverage of the late 1980s, where he posits that "Western commentary on AIDS in the Third World tells us much about the forms of contemporary racism." Tracing the various ways in which the West has constructed and represented Africa in the past, I argue that much of this tradition still persists, as clearly reflected in the analysis and excerpts of the articles under scrutiny. Arguing that the media have a pivotal role to play in (re)producing this understanding of Africa and Africans on the part of the West, I offer suggestions and recommendations that may lead to bettering this highly problematic coverage.