Kimberly Briggs

Major and Classification

Print Journalism

Faculty Mentor

  • Elaine Bell-Kaplan, Ph.D.

Department

  • Sociology

McNair Project

Looking at the Man in the Mirror?: Content Analysis of AIDS Coverage in Ebony and Newsweek

This study, using mainstream American magazines Ebony and Newsweek, looks at how AIDS is covered in these two periodicals from years 2001 to 2006. I intend to show through qualitative content analysis how each magazine has covered AIDS and why coverage of the epidemic may vary by magazine. Initially portrayed as a gay white male’s disease in the 1980s, the demographics of the epidemic have since become overwhelmingly African-American. Typically American media has portrayed the face of AIDS as gay and white, or poor and African. Just recently has the media acknowledged the impact AIDS has had on African-Americans in the United States. AIDS is one of the most crucial health concerns of this age, both domestically and internationally, male and female, across all ethnicities. This research is significant because it examines the current portrayal of AIDS in the mainstream media and seeks to provide clarity on why this one disease is subject to numerous interpretations.