Because reporters today are covering issues such as AIDS, the news media in the 21st century will be successful when dealing with other health care problems, the director of the York City Bureau of Health said Saturday.

AIDS is acting as a "bellwether," telling journalists how to manage other problems such as teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and alcoholism, said David L. Hawk, speaking to a group of professional journalists.

Hawk, one of about 20 experts speaking at the conference, said according to Webster's Dictionary a bellwether is defined as a leader of a thoughtless crowd.

Hawk spoke on one of four panels at the "Pennsylvania in the Year 2000: The News Conference," The panels included local government efficiency, economic development, changing population and the environment.

R. Thomas Berner, conference organizer and professor-in-charge of journalism, said the main point of the conference was to inform journalists about issues the news media need to know about so they can report to the public.

Hawk said because AIDS is the major health issue of the decade, it is an index case of what will happen with other problems.

Although AIDS is no longer affecting only gay men, but also women, minorities, intravenous drug users and children, society is ignorant of it, he said.

"Both Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, I feel, have ignored the AIDS epidemic," he said.

Some wide disparities exist in our society today, Hawk said, adding he thinks what is happening to the health care system is frightening.

Many technological breakthroughs are happening in the medical field such as computerized radiology and new effective pharmacologic agents, Hawk said, yet at the same time the United States has one of the highest mortality rates in the world and over one million teenagers are pregnant.

Issues such as infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and drug and alcohol abuse, he said, quickly lead into issues like poverty, lack of housing, poor nutrition and lack of education.

The conference was held Saturday at the Keller Conference Center. Other speakers included Raymond W. Regan, associate professor of environmental engineering; Harold E. Cheatham, associate professor of education and Doris J. Turkes, sociologist.

The conference was sponsored by the Gannett Foundation, which provided a $6,600 grant, in conjunction with the School of Communications.