Audience understandings of AIDS media messages: a discussion of methods

Abstract

What do people think of the media coverage of AIDS; how do they interpret what they hear and see? This article explores the methods used on the AIDS Media Research Project to examine audience ‘readings’ of AIDS media messages. It highlights the advantages of employing a combination of questionnaires, group discussion and different group exercises and presents some preliminary findings to show how these data collection techniques can throw light on audience understandings of AIDS and the media. In particular the focus is on how such methods help to explain two areas of apparent ‘misunderstanding’: the distinction between HIV and AIDS and the risks of blood donation and lesbian sex. Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved