Using textural analysis, this study is to analyze the representations of AIDS deaths in the Taiwanese press and how the social rules and dominant ideology regarding AIDS are re-produced through these representations.
The rhetorical themes of AIDS deaths found are as following: deaths in a public space, filthy deaths, deserved deaths, inescapable deaths, undignified deaths, deaths in loneliness, deaths in despair and distress, premature deaths, rapid collective deaths, deaths lurking behind, and deaths to commemorate. The language and discourses used to describe and account for AIDS deaths connect AIDS with "bad", "unnatural", "abnormal" deaths, therefore keep the "clean" general population and the "contaminated" people with AIDS safely apart. The representations of AIDS deaths threaten the general population into behaving themselves to avoid punishment (to die a bad death). The study demonstrates how media use disease to define social boundaries and further help to reinforce social norms and maintain social orders.