Twenty Years of HIV/AIDS in Leading Italian Magazines (1982‒2001)

As several studies on other national contexts have demonstrated the crucial role of mass media in constructing and continually redefining HIV/AIDS as a social phenomenon, this chapter examines the discourses and representations of HIV/AIDS in Italy from the emergence of the syndrome in early 1980s up to early 2000s, the end of the “long emergency phase” in Italy. It draws on a type of source that is both revealing and relatively underexplored: the two major Italian magazines, L’Espresso and Panorama. The chapter compares the narratives developed by these magazines with those disseminated through newspapers and public and private broadcastings, in order to highlight both similarities and divergences among the magazines themselves and between magazines and other media. Particular attention is paid to the transmedial dynamics linking magazines to other outlets, as well as to the role of magazines within the broader agenda-setting process regarding HIV/AIDS-related stories, focusing not only on the peak years of the epidemic, but also on the period preceding the crisis. Through a systematic analysis of about 1,000 articles, the chapter demonstrates that, at least within the Italian context, magazines not only played a decisive role in “inventing” AIDS as a social phenomenon, but also shaped and sustained evolving narratives of the syndrome, in ways that reflected both their editorial lines and, crucially, the personal sensitivities and lived experiences of their contributors.