Broadcasting the Pandemic

Broadcasting the Pandemic tells the story of a South African television show, Beat It! Created during the aspirational years of the political transition in which the broadcast media were poised to democratize the airwaves, Beat It! was first screened on public television in 1999 and developed into one of the most powerful health education initiatives in contemporary history. Broadcasting the Pandemic traces the shows evolution, exploring how Beat It! used the medium of television to inform its viewers about HIV at a time of increasingly rapid infection rates, but in which government education and treatment campaigns were largely absent. Broadcasting the Pandemic pioneers a new methodology in scholarship about South Africa using a television programme to explore the history of AIDS activism and policy. It provides a contemporary history of television in South Africa, and of its role in the most influential social movement to have emerged from the democratic transition: the HIV activist movement. Its content will interest readers from a wide array of disciplines, including African Studies, journalism, public health, sociology, cultural studies and the history of medicine.

Introduction

1. HIV in South Africa: A brief history
2. Politics and pandemic on South African television
3. ‘We are the loud-mouthed HIV-positive people’: Stigma, disclosure and ‘positive living’ on Beat It!
4. The revolution will be televised: HIV and the ‘new struggle’ on Beat It!
5. Antiretrovirals on the airwaves: Using television to promote access to HIV treatment
6. Confronting myths: Beat It!, biomedicine and traditional healing
7. AIDS denialism, unregulated experiments and curative claims
8. Broadcasting dissent: Beat It!’s programming on the SABC
9. ‘Beat It! has become my life partner’: Participatory programming and HIV-positive patriotism

Appendix A Broadcasting the Pandemic: Timeline
Appendix B List of Beat It! clips
Glossary of foreign words and South African colloquialisms
References
Author info
Index