Soap operas might be an effective AIDS education tool, one researcher says.
Paula Treichler, research professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, seeks to combat a perceived reduction in media coverage of the disease and the HIV virus, which causes it.
"Even as new cases remain high, media coverage is getting lower," Treichler said, speaking as part of the Annenberg School for Communication's recognition of World AIDS Day on Tuesday.
Treichler believes that television may be one way to effectively communicate the nature of AIDS to the general public.
"The power of entertainment TV is that it can grasp factual information and make it interesting," she added.
Treichler examined clips from General Hospital, a medical soap opera popular in the early 1990s.
In particular, she looked at a storyline from 1995, in which one of the main characters was diagnosed with AIDS, and analyzed the show's ability to inform viewers of the facts surrounding the epidemic.
For example, in one scene, Stone -- the infected character -- recites the myriad drugs that he is forced to take for therapy as if it were a game, turning it into a masculine competition.
While the soap opera may be more dramatic than real life, Treichler says that it is precisely that characteristic that allows it to emphasize the devastation caused by AIDS and leave an impression on the viewer.
The storyline "was specifically designed to talk to young people," Treichler said.
She added that widespread media coverage resulted from General Hospital's AIDS storyline.
Many attendees seemed to find the lecture intriguing.
"I thought it was helpful to understand the production of popular stories that influence how the public at large views a political issue," said Russ Tisinger, a fifth-year Communication graduate student.
But some members of the audience asked Treichler to provide statistics regarding the effect that these shows might have on the epidemic -- figures which she could not provide.
"I wish that she had quantified the influence, in some way, [of] how many viewers watch the show," Russ said. "What proportion of them have HIV? What proportion are female or male, young or old?"
