★★★★★ 0/5

TV forgets about World AIDS Day 2011

There's barely a mention of World AIDS Day in television programming this year.

14
Leave a comment

As long-term readers of this site would know, I have been filing highlights for World AIDS Day programming for several years (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) but the coverage seems to diminish with every passing year.

This year I could barely find anything in the schedule to mark the occasion.

Discovery Home and Health screens Ashley Judd and YouthAIDS: Confronting the Pandemic at 10:30pm tonight,

One of Hollywood’s most celebrated actresses, Ashley Judd is embarking on a life-changing journey into Central America, where the AIDS rates are steadily climbing.

But unless Ashley Judd is filming new specials, this is a repeat programme which has been circulating for several years. But how is the HIV virus impacting in 2011?

It’s a bit disappointing that ABC News 24 hasn’t slated anything of note, and even SBS doesn’t appear to be in the mix this year. MTV has a long history of marking the day but I can’t seem to find anything there either.

Perhaps news channels like BBC and CNN might cover the topic in some of their international analysis.

14 Responses

  1. MTV advises: We aired Me, Myself & HIV, a one hr program at 10:30pm [Edgy, entertaining and enlightening, Me, Myself & HIV follows the lives of two twenty-somethings both living with HIV]. We also have 2 PSAs on air- they started 26th Nov and will continue until 9th Dec. There was also a WAD bug on screen throughout the day.

  2. It’s never been a “cool” ribbon to wear and even harder to sell. Breast cancer and sick kids are cool and socially acceptable so people feel good about wearing that ribbon proudly. Same people automatically expect you to wear pink but never wear red. They always have some excuse “Oh, I forgot” or ” Oh you know….” – the hypocrisy makes me feel downright ill. Sunrise have always worn them and yes the red ribbon was the first ribbon. The others followed suit after that.

  5. @Alicia
    Your children should be congratulted on wearing the Red Ribbons.
    You should also be congratulated on teaching your children that HIV/AIDS is still here & there is no cure.
    So Thankyou.

  7. Also Behind the Red Door on W! Robert A – even my kids wore them today, an issue that is so prominent, yet seems to be swept under the rug. There is a spike in women being infected, even in Australia – yet where is the awareness?

  8. Thankyou David for caring.
    Im wearing my Red Ribbon as it is very close to my Heart.
    It is a shame that the HIV/AIDS issue has not got more coverage.

  10. This is a shame, yes treatment and diagnosis is improving but the awareness campaign should still be out there. There is a rise of STD’s around the world including Australia the media should not be complacent on this disease.

    I wonder what overseas TV programing is like for World Aids day.

  11. I hate to say it, but the only way Aussie TV will care about World AIDS Day again is if a prominent local sports WAG comes out as HIV positive, a la breast cancer.

  12. I noticed the presenters on Channel 7 this morning ( Sunrise) all wore the red ribbons…But none of Channel 9’s presenters did on the Today show.
    Imagine the uproar if they didn’t wear a ribbon on Pink ribbon day for breast cancer..???
    The Red Ribbon was the first ribbon worn to commemorate a disease..all the other diseases and causes copied the Red Ribbon statement.

  14. David I guess it is not such a big deal any more. Diagnosis and treatment have improved substantially over the past 25 years. It is also an avoidable illness and the public awreness campaigns in some countries have helped. The BBC website has an article on this which may help to explain why there is less hullabaloo these days….

Leave a Reply