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UID:pretalx-wha-annual-meeting-korea-2026-3BNAWS@pretalx.com
DTSTART;TZID=KST:20260627T085000
DTEND;TZID=KST:20260627T091000
DESCRIPTION:In the summer of 1981\, one of the longest-running queer newspa
 pers\, San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter\, reported on a mysterious illn
 ess affecting the gay community. The small\, independent press was the fir
 st media outlet to identify a new disease that the CDC would later call HI
 V/AIDS. Over the subsequent decade\, queer papers stayed ahead of mainstre
 am reporting on the epidemic\, transforming into vital exchanges of medica
 l news\, advice\, and support. Facing discriminatory negligence on the par
 t of mainstream media and traditional public health institutions\, queer j
 ournalists and their readers built an alternative communications infrastru
 cture that transected national borders\, turning a more sporadic collectio
 n of local papers into a global network committed to producing and dissemi
 nating life-saving knowledge. \n\nOver the course of the epidemic\, letter
 s-to-the-editor sections at these newspapers were expanded by their editor
 ial staff to enable widespread reader engagement on the matter of medical 
 research and information sharing. While their journalists endeavored to pr
 ovide the most current medical information as reports of fatal pneumonia a
 nd Kaposi’s Sarcoma among gay men increased\, the papers’ reader lette
 rs served as a check on those reports\, with readers providing their own d
 oubts\, concerns\, and theories about ongoing reporting on the disease. Ba
 sed on newspaper sources from queer publications printed in both the Unite
 d States and abroad\, this paper explores the ways that local newspaper re
 aders created an international community around unofficial medical informa
 tion sharing to navigate a global epidemic.
DTSTAMP:20260412T123922Z
LOCATION:Room 105 (Seats 84)
SUMMARY:How Queer Journalists and Their Readers Created Global Community Th
 rough a Pandemic - Alexandra Coakley
URL:https://pretalx.com/wha-annual-meeting-korea-2026/talk/3BNAWS/
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