Archetypes of infection: people with HIV/AIDS in the Australian press in the mid 1990s

This article presents the findings of an interpretive analysis of the representation of people with HIV/AIDS in the Australian press in a three-year period between 1994 and 1996. Three major archetypes of people with HIV/AIDS dominating reports - the 'AIDS victim', the 'AIDS survivor' and the 'AIDS carrier' - are discussed for what they reveal not only about contemporary approaches to HIV/AIDS but also about more general nations of morality and self-control related to the body, medicine, health and illness. It is argued that these dominant archetypes inevitably draw from previous representations of HIV/AIDS, but at the same time demonstrate evidence of changing discourses and meanings. One feature of particular interest is that moral judgements related to people with HIV/AIDS presented in these news texts appear to be based less on how they acquired the virus than the manner in which they deport themselves once infected.