Televised Media Performance for HIV/AIDS Sufferers in Africa: Distance Reduction and National Community in Two Danish Fundraising Shows

摘要

This article analyzes 2 Danish fundraising shows on HIV/AIDS in Africa. In the duration of the show, we collectively confirm and reconfirm our concern with and responsibility for distant others. To achieve this, the shows revolve around 2 aspects: distance reduction and national community construction. Distance reduction serves to create (temporal) emotional and moral connections between viewers and sufferers and to convince viewers that their donations will "reach" the sufferers. National community construction celebrates the viewers' affluence and welfare. This position is used as a springboard to assert the viewers' responsibility to distribute some of this affluence to distant and needy others. This article concludes by evaluating the cosmopolitan effect of the shows.