Ethnographic reflections on communicative inequities, global health relationships, and two decades of HIV in the Bolivian press

ABSTRACT

This article draws on two decades of media representations of HIV, ethnographic research among people living with HIV, and an analysis of global health programms in Bolivia. In doing so, we chart the evolution of media representations in relation to the global health context and the implications of these representations for people living with HIV. Our overarching argument is that media discourses on HIV in Bolivia have consistently been produced in a context of an unequal balance of power between global health bodies and local actors. This power imbalance has enabled global health bodies operating in Bolivia to maintain authority in producing local narratives about HIV, even when these narratives do not adequately capture the particularities of the Bolivian context. The mismatch between dominant global health narratives that have infiltrated the Bolivian media and ethnographic realities can have deleterious effects on people living with HIV. We draw on the concept communicative inequities to highlight how global health bodies shape dominant media narratives and the ways these dominant narratives at times misrepresent ethnographic realities. Thus, a media analysis informed by ethnographic experiences offers a unique lens for interrogating the implications of global health interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV/AIDS
• ethnography
• Bolivia
• media
• medical anthropology

Acknowledgements

Carina Heckert received funding through a Wenner-Gren Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fieldwork Grant and an Ed Fry Research Award through the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University. Timothy Wright received funding through the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship and the Organization of American States. Funding from the Campus Office for Undergraduate Research Initiatives and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso supported Estefanía Hernandez and Victoria De Anda’s work on this project. We would also like to thank Waskar Ari, José Luis Gonzales Castedo, and Helene Wright for their contributions to our collection of news articles.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Our use of “gay” and “LGBT” reflects a historical shift in local discourse. While LGBTQ has become commonly used elsewhere, LGBT remains the prevalent acronym in Bolivia.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Organization of American States; Fulbright-Hays [Grant Number Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship]; Southern Methodist University [Grant Number Department of Anthropology Ed Fry Award]; University of Texas at El Paso [Grant Number Campus Office for Undergraduate Research Initiatives]; Wenner-Gren Foundation [Grant Number Doctoral Dissertation Fieldwork Grant].