The Critical Condition of Rhetorical Choices

What is it about?

HIV/AIDS is an epidemic that is still pervasive globally. Through effective health communication campaigns, the disease may be contained. This paper is a rhetorical visual analysis of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and its online presence. Global policy initiatives such as PEPFAR have wide reaching ramifications. Thus, the rhetoric of the George W. Bush administration as reflected in the PEPFAR initiative bears scrutiny. Both visual and discursive tropes reflected in the PEPFAR initiative offer an interesting contradiction. While the Bush administration's rhetoric purported to offer succor to those stricken with HIV/AIDS, the actual content and substance of PEPFAR belied its surface appearances by undercutting support for those in danger of being infected and those already ill with HIV/AIDS.

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Why is it important?

This study comes at a time when HIV/AIDS is still a disease that humankind continues to struggle with.