Summary

This paper was originally written as a contribution to discussions about HIV treatments media occurring between the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) and the National Association of People Living with HIV and AIDS (NAPWA). The Executive of NAPWA tabled the paper at the HIV subcommittee of the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases.

The paper was based on research undertaken by the HIV Treatments Education Project of the Researchers in Residence Program. The implications of this research for how community–based HIV/AIDS media are best understood are more extensive than the original motivation for the paper allowed, consequently it has been somewhat revised for wider circulation.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the conceptual frameworks used to understand HIV/AIDS media. In particular, it queries notions of these media that see them solely as distribution mechanisms for treatments information and introduces the notion of cultures of care in which the HIV media play a key role.