Abstract

HIV and AIDS is discussed and addressed at various levels throughout the written media. The goal of this thesis is to gather information on how HIV and AIDS is represented and constructed in one university newspaper and to offer a preliminary description of how HIV and AIDS is discussed and addressed in this form of written media. The results will offer a basis for comparison with other written media sources and how they have dealt differently or similarly with the explosion of information concerning HIV and AIDS in all its spheres. The aim of this study is to analyze the social constructions of HIV and AIDS in the Link . The analysis of the texts focuses on three major questions: How is the virus presented? How are the patients characterized? What solutions are put forward? This thesis also looks at how the Link compares to official discourse, counter-cultural discourse, and the mainstream media discourse, with respect to these questions. No single approach would be sufficient to explain or expose all the cultural implications and political subtexts of all the representations of the epidemic. Nevertheless, in the welter of conflicting representations and responses, Foucauldian scepticism emerges as the dominant intellectual force behind the whole effort lending the readings a theoretical coherence as a testimony to the persistent vitalities of his unsettling political wisdom.