HIV/AIDS and Subaltern Autonomous Rationality: A Call to Recenter Health Communication in Marginalized Sex Worker Spaces

Sex workers in India constitute a marginalized population. They are considered at high risk of HIV/AIDS and are stigmatized for “selling sex” in a culture that generally censures sex outside marriage. HIV/AIDS initiatives targeted at this population have mostly adhered to promoting condom use, increasing awareness, and encouraging blood tests to screen for HIV/AIDS. Missing from this discourse are voices of sex workers and their autonomous consciousness. Based on an analysis of interview data from an eight-week field project, this paper seeks to centralize sex worker subaltern rationality in a call to reframe expert-led HIV/AIDS communication efforts that cater to sex worker communities.     

Role of Indian public libraries to increase the awareness of the community on HIV/AIDS

Abstract

Today Indian society is at high risk. AIDS, the most devastating disease humankind has ever faced, has become a conflagration on the Indian subcontinent and nearly 5.134 million people in the country are estimated to be HIV-positive. There is a perceived need for public libraries to provide necessary information to make the community aware of the threat of HIV/AIDS. Today's challenge is to reinvent the public libraries to respond to community needs. This paper explores the avenues created by ICT-enabled networking processes in providing HIV/AIDS information to the unprivileged population in India. It concludes with a number of recommendations that are intended to address the core problems and thereby improve the overall situation.     

HIV/AIDS Outreach: Curriculum Development and Skills Training to Health and Information Professionals

With funding from the National Library of Medicine HIV/AIDS Community Information Outreach Program (ACIOP), librarians at the University of Florida Health Sciences Libraries partnered with university and community groups to facilitate collaboration, develop new information resources, develop information-seeking skills, and raise general awareness surrounding HIV/AIDS risks, prevention, and treatment. This article describes the skills development elements of the project, including development and implementation of an HIV/AIDS information resource curriculum for health care providers, social services professionals, and public librarians within the project’s partner organizations.     

Communication in the management of uncertainty: The case of persons living with HIV or AIDS

Communication is a means of managing uncertainty. In a state of uncertainty: (a) information seeking can reduce uncertainty by allowing for better discrimination between or among alternatives; (b) information seeking can increase uncertainty by increasing the number of alternatives, or by blurring the distinction between or among alternatives; and (c) information avoidance can maintain uncertainty. Individuals living with HIV or AIDS, like many other chronically‐ill or terminally‐ill individuals, must manage high levels of uncertainty about their illness. Participants in a focus group study of persons with HIV or AIDS reported effective uncertainty management, including managing uncertainty that was challenging, managing uncertainty that was essential for maintaining hope, learning to live with chronic uncertainty, and managing information problems. New information can serve uncertainty management even if it fails to reduce the number or ambiguity of alternatives, because new information can invite a reappraisal of uncertainty. A theory of uncertainty management based on these findings is offered.     

整合生物医学信息,构建性病艾滋病综合信息网络数据库

作者拟利用互联网信息整合系统 ( Internet Information Integration System,3 I)从 Internet上遴选、下载、收集各种有价值的性病艾滋病信息 ,经过自动分类、过滤、排重和知识网络构建等智能化的处理整合后 ,建立性病艾滋病综合信息资源网络数据库并为用户提供检索服务 ,也可以个性化的形式提供给用户。     

OUT-ing AIDS

Little is known about the relationship between the Irish gay press and the AIDS crisis during the 1980s. This article aims to fill this gap by presenting the findings of a study dealing with the AIDS epidemic in Ireland and how it was confronted through the alternative media platform of OUT magazine. Using issues of OUT, it argues that alternative media in Ireland were pivotal in generating vital public health information for the gay community, particularly when the mainstream press and Irish government were not providing the necessary resources. This article also highlights the activist potential of alternative media such as OUT, as it engaged with public bodies in an attempt to hold them accountable for their response, or lack thereof, to the epidemic. The Irish gay press is thus an important example of how alternative media are critical when mainstream society ignores a particular group’s public health needs.     

Police Media: The Governance of Territory,Speed, and Communication

The work of the modern police apparatus is highly dependent upon media technologies. This article traces crucial developments in this history, analyzing the central role that media have played in policing practices since the advent of the modern patrol in the late eighteenth century. We trace how the governmentalized police force has used media to govern efficiently what Foucault calls the three great variables: territory, speed, and communication. In conclusion, we consider the possibilities for resistance in a time when digital police media have given rise to alarming strategies for surveilling populations, stifling dissent, and exerting control over public and private space.     

Malevolence,stigma, and social distance: Maximizing intergroup differences in HIV/AIDS discourse

This study examined the intergroup language used by young heterosexual Australians in conversations about HIV/AIDS and safe sex. Sixty male and 72 female heterosexuals participated in four‐person facilitated conversations (same‐sex or mixed‐sex) about HIV/AIDS and safe sex, which were recorded and transcribed. We focused on extracts concerning strangers or malevolent individuals who appear to be group members, along with extracts involving foreign national groups. Discourse analysis showed that groups at lower levels of social distance were constructed mainly in terms of individual responsibility. At moderate social distance, stereotypes were more negative, but sub‐typing was common, whereas at the highest levels, people were constructed entirely in intergroup terms. The findings of this study suggest that HTV prevention programs should make reference to all salient outgroups, so as to neutralize communicative strategies that strengthen intergroup boundaries as a means of reducing perceived personal threat of HIV infection.     

The Ethics of Keeping HIV/AIDS Newsworthy in Tanzania

This study focuses on the negotiation of ethical challenges when reporting HIV/AIDS in Tanzania by investigating how two newspapers, the Daily News and the Guardian, operate in an environment with marked limitations on resources. Interviews with journalists reveal how economic concerns and reluctance to invest money in reporting a disease, now perceived as “old news,” has opened up space for official news sources to gain privileged access to disseminate their messages, shaping the discourse on HIV/AIDS. Organizational news sources use many strategies, including providing a “transport allowance” and offering all-expenses paid trips to the field in order to gain media attention, raising ethical dilemmas for journalists and concerns about the quality of the news that gets published.     

Counterpublicity and Corporeality in HIV/AIDS Zines

This essay demonstrates how two U.S. zines produced from 1990 to 1999 by and for gay men with HIV/AIDS—Diseased Pariah News (DPN) and Infected Faggot Perspectives (IFP)—constitute counterpublics. I demonstrate how DPN and IFP constitute counterpublics through thematization of two important forms of difference—blood status (HIV-positive or HIV-negative), and political ideology. I then specify and elaborate primary modes of corporeal expressivity in the zines—the erotic/sexual and the grotesque—to demonstrate the work that each mode does for the counterpublics.     

Perceived and experienced stigma among people living with HIV: Examining the role of prior stigmatization on reasons for and against future disclosures

HIV remains a significant health concern entering the fourth decade of the epidemic [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2014. HIV basics. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/index.html], and people living with HIV continue to grapple with stigma. This study uses Leary and Schreindorfer's [1998 Leary, M. R., &; Schreindorfer, L. S. (1998). The stigmatization of HIV and AIDS: Rubbing salt in the wound. In V. J. Derlega &; A. P. Barbee (Eds.), HIV and social interaction (pp. 12–29). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [Google Scholar]. The stigmatization of HIV and AIDS: Rubbing salt in the wound. In V. J. Derlega &; A. P. Barbee (Eds.), HIV and social interaction (pp. 12 Lekas, H. M., Siegel, K., &; Schrimshaw, E. W. (2006). Continuities and discontinuities in the experiences of felt and enacted stigma among women with HIV/AIDS. Qualitative Health Research, 16, 1165–1190. doi:10.1177/1049732306292284[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]–29 Lekas, H. M., Siegel, K., &; Schrimshaw, E. W. (2006). Continuities and discontinuities in the experiences of felt and enacted stigma among women with HIV/AIDS. Qualitative Health Research, 16, 1165–1190. doi:10.1177/1049732306292284[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage] conceptualization of stigma to explore prior stigmatization on reasons for and against future disclosures. We interviewed HIV+ individuals (N?=?59) and used a combination of deductive and inductive coding to analyze participants’ responses. Deductive codes consisted of four stigma characteristics (pose a threat to others’ health and safety, deviate from group standards, create negative emotional reactions in others, and failure to contribute), experiences of feeling stigmatized due to HIV status (yes or no), and the degree to which HIV stigma was a concern (major, minor, or no concern). Inductive coding identified examples of perceived and experienced stigma and stigma concerns on future disclosure decision-making. Practical implications discuss individual, institutional, and societal stigma-reduction interventions and programs.     

Unspeakable PrEP: a qualitative study of sexual communication,problematic integration,and uncertainty management among men who have sex with men in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This study explored how men who have sex with men (MSM) communicated their use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) on smartphone applications. Informed by the theory of problematic integration and uncertainty management, we asked if revealing ‘HIV negative, on PrEP’ status on smartphone applications might increase one's uncertainty in communicating about safe sex with others. We conducted interviews with 31 Taiwanese MSM currently taking PrEP who participated in a national demonstration project. We identified three types of PrEP-related uncertainty: condition, information, and stigma uncertainty. Applied implications of our findings indicate the importance of the feasibility of medical infrastructure in implementing PrEP, the complication in translating scientific and medical jargon into everyday language, and dynamics of negotiating stigmas associated with HIV and AIDS in the context of HIV prevention.     

From California to Michigan: Race,Rationality, and Neoliberal Governmentality

In this essay, we examine recent developments in battles over race- and gender-based affirmative action across a 10-year period from the California Civil Rights Initiative (1996) to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (2006). While affirmative action policies have historically been contested within a paradigm of redistribution, our analysis of the Michigan case suggests a new strategic emphasis on disputing the legitimacy of the state's recognition of social difference. Drawing on the work of critical race and critical rhetoric scholars, as well as social theory on citizenship in the post-soul moment, we argue that a neoliberal understanding of difference and neoliberalism's appropriations of multiculturalism have allowed the anti-affirmative action movement in Michigan to avoid racist appeals completely by invoking the neoliberal myth of free, entrepreneurial individuals against a meddling, inefficient, authoritarian state. Further, we find that these shifts have permitted assaults on the positive consideration of gender—a strategy that was not possible when debates were centered over competing claims of racism. Finally, we argue that these strategic adjustments since California have enabled the anti-affirmative action movement to discursively align itself with contemporary neoliberal assaults on a range of social and cultural rights.     

从工具理性到价值理性:广告与社会关系的重大调整

广告工具理性片面追求广告作为营销工具的有效性,推动了广告发展,也导致广告与社会关系紧张。广告价值理性,包容、超越广告工具理性,全面考虑广告价值,并指向人的自由全面发展,不仅能调整广告与社会的关系,而且能推动广告协调发展。因此,广告应该由工具理性走向价值理性。     

From Drill Sergeants to Maternal Negotiators: Mass-Mediated Business Strategies in the 1980s

By drawing on Foucault's theory of governmentality, this essay posits that media discourses helped to create, deliberate upon, and circulate proper practices for U.S. white-collar working women in the 1980s. Analysis of discourse circulating in mass media about the woman manager, the saleswoman, and the woman union leader shows that media outlets claimed each would offer innovative solutions to counteract the volatile economy in the 1980s. For example, the logic of maternal management propagated in these discourses valorized a “return to the home” for women while simultaneously claiming that men were better maternal managers than women. The privileged subject ultimately emerging in this discourse was a feminized businessman, rather than a maternal or feminized businesswoman.     

Teaching assistant communication apprehension,willingness to communicate,and state communication anxiety in the classroom

This study investigated the nature of teaching assistant communication apprehension in the university classroom. Teaching assistants were given a survey assessing their general level of communication apprehension and their general willingness to communicate. Additionally, teaching assistant state anxiety specifically associated with teaching in the classroom was assessed. Analyses revealed significant negative correlations between teaching assistant communication apprehension and teaching experience, training in content, and training in teaching. Teaching assistant willingness to communicate was positively correlated with teaching experience and training in content. Teaching assistant state anxiety in the classroom was negatively correlated with training in content and training in teaching.     

Acquiring Food and Drug Administration Information Under the Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act mandates that Federal agencies provide access to their files to any individual requesting information. Files available from the Food and Drug Administration are particularly valuable to medical librarians, offering information about the approval and regulation of medical devices and pharmaceuticals. This article briefly describes the approval process for drugs and devices and the corresponding records that generally are held on file at the Food and Drug Administration. Instructions for structuring a Freedom of Information Act request letter, resulting charges, and expected responses are outlined.     

Journalism,Moral Panic and the Public Interest

The public interest is commonly presumed to be fundamental to the practice of journalism. Journalists and the media organizations for which they work routinely assume that they are able to identify what is in the public interest, and act accordingly. This article explores notions of the public interest in the context of a particular case study, that of Sharleen Spiteri, an HIV-positive sex worker who appeared on the Australian national current affairs television programme 60 Minutes in 1989 and admitted that she sometimes had unprotected sex with clients. As a consequence of the ensuing wave of moral panic, she was forcibly detained in a locked AIDS ward and a mental asylum. After she was released she was kept under 24-hour surveillance for the remaining 15 years of her life. In 2010, the authors of this article produced a radio documentary for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about Sharleen Spiteri's case. The authors argue that her story raises some important and difficult questions for the ethical practice of journalism. They analyse the role of journalists and politicians involved in Sharleen's case, and show that their belief that they were acting in the public interest played into well-established historical narratives linking sex workers with disease and dissolution, with disastrous consequences for Sharleen herself. The authors argue that a more reflexive and responsible conception of the public interest for journalists requires them to pay more careful attention to the voices and perspectives of people who are excluded from participation in the public sphere.     

Feeling Connected via Television Viewing: Exploring the Scale and Its Correlates

Contextualized in television program viewing, the current study seeks to develop a new scale that captures individuals' feelings of being connected to others via media consumption. Literature on general human motivation and media consumption motivation sheds light on social relatedness in television experiences. Data suggest a three-factor structure of the focal concept of feeling connected via television viewing (FCTV): (1) a perception of shared viewing among one's immediate social circle and anticipation of subsequent communication as aided by television programs, (2) a sense of global community enhanced by shared television experiences, and (3) communication with distant unknown others. A stronger sense of FCTV predicts a greater tendency for an individual to watch a program when it is first released, and to watch it together with one's friends, as well as a higher level of general involvement with television. Further, we differentiate the focal concept of feeling connected to other television viewers via television viewing from the related concept of parasocial interaction with television characters. Relative to parasocial interaction, FCTV better predicts collective viewing and first-run viewing.     

烙印、他者和道德化色彩——中国艾滋病报道(2003-2009)话语分析

通过对2003-2009年的艾滋病报道的话语分析,本文认为中国的艾滋病报道有三个深层特征:一是报道立场本着我们/他们的分野,二是所体现的态度具有强烈的道德色彩。这两点通过分析艾滋病报道的语词表达得出。通过分析谣言变成现实的报道中的引述,中国艾滋病报道还有第三个深层特征是媒介的艾滋病报道是谣言的谣言。