Constructing victimhood in Canadian news coverage of HIV criminalisation

Claims‐making activities and HIV non‐disclosure

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12925841
AutoresJeffrey P Aguinaldo (0000-0002-2744-5515, Wilfrid Laurier University, autor de correspondencia), Nicole Greenspan (0009-0005-5652-2443, Film Independent)
Año2024
Volumen61
Número1
Páginas67-84
Fecha de publicación2024-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCanadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1755-6171 • E-ISSN: 1755-618X
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/cars.12463
OpenAlexW4391449394
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas34

A robust body of research has documented the representational politics of news coverage in their depiction of HIV‐positive people charged for HIV non‐disclosure. News media representations of HIV‐negative sex partners in cases of HIV non‐disclosure have received far less scholarly attention. Adopting a social constructionist perspective, this article identifies how “victims” of HIV non‐disclosure are constructed in news media. It is based on a dataset consisting of 341 news articles on HIV non‐disclosure from 14 English Canadian newspapers across the political spectrum. Victims of HIV non‐disclosure were constructed as: (1) suffering horribly, (2) morally pure and virtuous, (3) vengeful and (4) agentic and responsible for their situation. We consider how such constructions are enmeshed within arguments that establish or reject HIV non‐disclosure as a social problem. We then discuss the ways these constructions and the assumptions upon which they are based reflect broader discussions on the severity of HIV, the responsibility for HIV risk and exposure, and the contestations over the very nature of the social problem of HIV non‐disclosure. Constructions of victims that uphold HIV criminalisation have relied on assumptions of HIV as a deadly disease but de‐emphasise personal responsibility for HIV risk. By contrast, constructions of victims that, in effect, oppose HIV criminalisation have tended to minimise the harms of HIV and invoke personal responsibility for HIV risk. We suggest that both proponents and opponents of HIV criminalisation engage in the “ideology of victimhood” and thus participate in and reinforce what Best (1997) termed, the “victim industry.”

Criminology · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Ideology · Newspaper · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Sociology · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology · Virology