Time's Picturing of HIV/Aids: International perceptions of disease in Africa

Abstract

This article is an exploration of the February 12, 2001 edition of Time magazine with its focus on Aids in Africa. I explore the extentto which Jo-Ellen Fair's viewpoint on news as reinforcement of the "relations of ruling" holds true. This essay will focus on how the binary oppositions "us" versus "them" came into being and more particularly on how the magazine's depictions of HIV/Aids and HIV+ people intersect with perceptions of race, place and gender. I also argue that Time's framing of this special issue fits the definition of a "doxiconic process" as suggested by Dana Cloud and that the (visual) rhetoric of HIV/Aids has many similarities to what she sees as a culture clash in the rhetoric of the (American) war on terrorism.