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Abstract
This piece begins with a brief literature review that focuses upon how media attempt to make sense of news events and construct meaning about HIV/AIDS. We then focus specifically on a linguistic process identified in French dailies in articles about the prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS, namely, the presence of certain adverbs. The impact of this linguistic process is also investigated in an experimental study. The results indicated that participants who were exposed to a message within which epidemiological data were marked by such adverbs compared to those who processed a message without such an adverbial marking expressed a higher level of perceived risk and declared a stronger intention to use a condom and to practice a screening test. They also judged the epidemiological situation as more serious and were more supportive of a coercive management of the epidemic. These effects also appeared when the message referred to a sexually transmitted infection with which the subjects were not familiar.
Notes
1In fact, it was a fictitious disease whose so-called origin was the “Paramyxoviridae virus.” Participants were asked to check “Yes” or “No” to answer the two following questions: Do you know the Paramyxoviridae infection? Did someone in your environment inform you about the Paramyxoviridae infection?
2"Comparative optimism" is sometimes used as a measure of "people's risk perception" (CitationAyers & Myers, 2011).
3Because a relaxation of preventive behaviors and condom use in particular has been registered from the beginning of 2000s among French people from 18 to 25 years old (CitationBeltzer et al., 2005), we decided to conduct this experiment with a sample of young adults. However, the university department where we have had the opportunity to carry out the experiment is usually frequented by male students and very few female students. Only two female students were present when we conducted the experiment, and we decided not to retain them for the statistical analysis.