Sociocultural Relations: Perspectives from Covid-19 Newspaper Headlines (original) (raw)

“This Virus is a Common Threat to All Humans”: Discourse Representation of COVID-19 in Selected Newspaper Editorials

ATHENS JOURNAL OF MASS MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS, 2022

Existing studies on viruses with bias for COVID-19 have mainly been carried out from non-linguistic fields. Linguistics-related studies have not examined the media representation of COVID-19 since it is a recent development. This study, therefore, identifies the representational strategies, discourse structures and discourse strategies deployed by selected newspapers in representing COVID-19 and associated participants. Data were retrieved from selected COVID-19-related editorials from four purposively selected countries and continents across the world: New York Times (USA, North America), The Guardian (UK, Europe), China Daily (China, Asia) and The Punch (Nigeria, Africa), published in the early periods of the pandemic, and precisely from January 1 – March 31, 2020. Guided by aspects of van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of critical discourse analysis on ideological discourse structures, data were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. The newspaper editorials unusually converged...

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Pakistani Newspapers Editorials in Coronavirus Pandemic

Research Journal of Social Sciences and Economics Review (RJSSER), 2021

This research explores Pakistani newspapers Editorials’ lexical, morphological, and social aspects of the coronavirus Pandemic in Pakistan under the light of the Critical Discourse Analysis angle. The focal idea is to discover the etymological decision and rhetorical questions utilized in a revealing pandemic, and how did the columnists shape readers' minds and thoughts through their words. The CDA has been used as a theoretical framework for analyzing the data. Information for this examination includes 15 Editorial randomly gathered from 100 newspapers in Pakistan. Results demonstrated the exploitation of terminologies has been shown inconvenience, fear of contagious disease, death, fear of touching, and outbreak among people. The bogus information was additionally found in newspapers. Contradiction among newspapers was found while presenting data. This social change brings ultimately a linguistic change in the world. The English language is the language of overcoming gaps amon...

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Newspaper Coverage and Reader Response to Covid-19 Reports

Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities

Studies attest to the importance of official languages in health communication in multilingual societies. However, the challenge lies in using an official language in ways that enable both majority and minority language speakers to identify with their sociocultural orientations when using a lingua franca. With the emergence of Covid-19, this challenge has come to the forefront following surveys on citizen responses to health messages. The study examines the themes, narrative viewpoints, language modes of newspaper reports on Covid-19, and reader responses to these reports. We aim to determine the implications of reader response on the credibility, severity, and transmissibility of Covid-19. The contents of three Nigerian newspapers (The Guardian, Punch, and Premium Times) were analyzed using quantitative and discourse analysis. The results showed that the themes of newspaper reports focused on challenges, progress made, preparedness, and containment measures. The language mode was p...

Themes Used to Discursively Construct the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kenya's Newspaper Headlines

Themes Used to Discursively Construct the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kenya’s Newspaper Headlines, 2024

This study investigates the themes that discursively construct the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya's newspaper headlines, specifically focusing on their role in structuring communication related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While prior research has examined news discourse in various contexts, thematic analysis in Kenya's news reporting has received limited attention. The study examines 59 COVID-19-related headlines drawn from The Standard and the Daily Nation newspapers. The methodology draws from the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model, and specifically employs the Top-Down Approach of sampling texts as espoused by Mautner. Van Dijk argues that those who control discourse indirectly manipulate people's thoughts and actions. This observation is corroborated by the study's findings which reveal that Kenya's print media shaped the COVID-19 discourse through the choice and framing of themes such as bondage, death, economy, education and COVID-19 research and search for vaccines. The analysis shows that Kenya's print media largely constructed the themes in a negative way and this created a sense of crisis and fear among the populace. These feelings of fear and crisis were heightened because the themes encapsulate the things that are dear to Kenyans and which were under threat because of COVID-19. Proactive measures such as online learning during the pandemic were almost wholly excluded from the COVID-19 discourse. The media created unequal power relation with the readership by constructing itself as the reservoir of knowledge about COVID-19. The reader was positioned as subordinate and in dire need of guidance. This was an important discursive strategy for legitimizing the authority of the media about the pandemic. It is hoped that this study will make significant contribution to the fields of discourse, communication and media, as it reveals how media discourse plays a key role in shaping our understanding of pandemics.

A Discourse Analysis of Online Newspaper Reports on COVID-19 in Nigeria

The International Journal of Humanities & Social Studies

A Discourse Analysis of Online Newspaper Reports on COVID-19 in Nigeria 1. Introduction The outbreak of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created a global health crisis that had a deep impact on the way we perceive our world and our everyday lives. Not only has the rate of contagion and patterns of transmission threatened our sense of agency, but the safety measures to contain the spread of the virus also required social and physical distancing, preventing us from finding solace in the company of others (Arriaga, et al., 2021; Benito, 2020). The novel Coronavirus is a current pandemic of Coronavirus family that is currently ravaging the whole world. It is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. It has emerged as a respiratory infection with significant concern for global public health hazards. Starting with initial suspicions of animal to the human transmission for earlier cases, the paradigm has shifted towards human to human transmission via droplets, contacts and fomites. It was first identified in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province of China in December, 2019. Early genetic analysis of the outbreak revealed that the virus was similar to, but distinct from SARS-CoV. However, the closest genetic similarity was found in a Coronavirus that had been isolated from bats (Apuke & Omar, 2020; Nwakpu, Ezema, & Ogbodo, 2020). In Nigeria, the first confirmed case of the disease was announced on 27 February, 2020, when an Italian citizen in Lagos tested positive for the virus. On 9 March, 2020, a second case of the virus was reported in Ewekoro, Ogun State, involving a Nigerian citizen who had contact with the Italian citizen. The COVID-19update retrieved from the website (http://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/), of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) stated that as at December, 2021, a summary of the Coronavirus situation in Nigeria indicated that there had been 280,119,931 confirmed COVID-19cases with 5,403,662 deaths resulting in a case fatality rate of 2.0% worldwide. Cumulatively, since the outbreak began in Week 9, 2020, there have been 237,561 cases and 3,022 deaths reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 1.3% in Nigeria. The number of in-bound international travelers tested was 9,398 of which 668 (7.1%) were positive compared to 522 (6.3%) (Out of 8,306 tested), while the number of out-bound international travelers tested was 10,233 of which 1,864 (18.2%) were positive. 2. Media and Coronavirus The media play crucial roles in shaping public opinion and perception of issues such as the outbreak of the virus. Part of the role of the media is to report any issue affecting the society to the masses. The way the media frame the

A Pragmatic Analysis of Selected Newspapers' Coverage of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

International Journal of Language and Literary Studies

Language is a pivotal instrument in the hand of journalists; they manipulate language at their disposal for accomplishing numerous goals. Thus, this study explores a pragmatic investigation of how meanings are interpreted in the selected newspapers’ coverage of the Coronavirus Pandemic in Nigeria. Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Acts Theory was used to analyze ten (10) data selected purposively from The Punch and The Vanguard Newspapers between February 2020 and June 2020. The study found out that the pragmatic relevance of the COVID-19 newspapers’ coverage is embedded in its media functions as it serves as an indicator to interpret the messages inherent in the coronavirus newspapers’ coverage and a pract of warning to the citizens of Nigeria to stay safe. The study also revealed that the practs used depend on context, situation and existing shared-knowledge of both the speaker and the reader. It was observed that journalists use the news headlines to perform several acts of warning, sensiti...

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Covid-19 in Iranian and American Newspapers

GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 2021

The policies and ideologies of countries are reflected in the propagated media of that country, and newspapers are no exception. Covid-19 has affected the lives of people all around the world. The present study investigated the ideological differences in reporting the news related to Covid-19 in light of Van Dijk's ideological square framework. To do so, a representative sample of 56 news articles was chosen over a period of one year (from January 2020 to the end of January 2021) from one Iranian and one American newspaper, the Tehran Times and The New York Times. Overall, 2,977 clauses were analysed both qualitatively, to find out the reason of occurrence, and quantitatively, to determine the frequency of occurrence for each microstrategy. Evidentiality, Hyperbole, Metaphor, National Self-Glorification, Negative Lexicalisation, and Number Game were the most frequent micro-strategies. Such high frequencies of the strategies can make for effective discursive apparatus to make readers believe what news articles claim is true. The most salient implication of this study would be raising readers' and academics' awareness of the need to view news articles critically to avoid negative ramifications of ideological propagandas. In the same vein, newspapers need to be cognizant of the micro-strategies they consciously or subconsciously employ since certain micro-strategies can be used to manipulate readers' minds and help news agencies to feed their readers certain ideological and political agendas.

The Language of Crisis: Print Media's Re[presentation] of the Covid-19 Discourses through Linguistic Choices

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked intense discourse and public debate, underscoring the critical role of print media in disseminating information and shaping public understanding. This paper explores the representation of Covid-19 discourses by print media, with a particular focus on linguistic choices. Employing a qualitative research approach, this study investigates how print media, including reputable sources such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian, employed specific linguistic strategies to represent the discourses surrounding the Covid-19 crisis. Through analysis of news items, newspaper articles, and editorials, the research aims to uncover the underlying linguistic patterns used to frame and portray the pandemic. The study aims to uncover the underlying patterns and variations in the language employed by media outlets to frame and portray the pandemic. The findings suggest that print media employed various linguistic strategies to represent the discourses surrounding Covid-19. Lexical selection plays a significant role, with certain words and phrases being strategically employed to convey specific meanings and evoke emotional responses. The New York Times, for example, tends to use precise and factual language, while The Guardian may employ more emotive and inclusive language. Additionally, the use of metaphors and analogies enables print media to frame the crisis in relatable terms, shaping public understanding and interpretation. Furthermore, the tone and rhetoric employed by print media contribute to the construction of different discourses surrounding the pandemic. For instance, some newspapers may emphasize the economic impact of the crisis, while others focus on the healthcare and social implications. These discourses influence public perception, policy decisions, and societal responses. Understanding the language of crisis employed by print media in representing the discourses surrounding Covid-19 is essential for comprehending the societal impact and dynamics of the pandemic. This research contributes to media literacy and critical analysis by highlighting the role of linguistic choices in shaping public discourse. It underscores the need for responsible and ethical journalism that presents a nuanced and balanced representation of the Covid-19 crisis.

Critical Discourse Analysis of Covid-19 Vaccine News in the English and Arabic Media

The virus takes a toll on people worldwide regarding the economy and social life, control the spread of this virus and taking the vaccine are most problems faced by the governments. This article examines the news coverage of the Coronavirus vaccine, focusing on the Covid-19 vaccine and how it has been exploited politically and ideologically in the English and Arabic media (BBC and Al-Jazeera). Since there are limited researches of CDA on the vaccine discourse in the media (how the vaccine is portrayed), this study aims to contribute to the researches in CDA about Covid-19 vaccine discourse. Fairclough's (1995) three-dimensional critical discourse analysis was utilised as a foundational framework to investigate the amount to which power is linguistically expressed persuasively in every discourse of different media genres using particular lexical, rhetorical, and pragmatic methods. A qualitative approach was used to analyse the selected data (two discourses from each media type). The findings revealed that the governments, through media, had used linguistic features to persuade people's minds, convincing them to take the vaccine as the only solution. The ethical appeal, cultural, societal and religious is very well generated in the discourse of both media genres.

Critical Discourse Analysis of the News of COVID-19 Corpse Snatching Patient in the I-News

2022

The diction used in the news of corpse snatching of COVID-19 varies and has caused the public to panic. This study aims to show the structure of the media language used in The News of Corpse Snatching of COVID-19 patients in Pasuruan and the factors that caused the hundreds of people attempting to take the deceased's body forcefully. The primary data are the news of corpse snathing of COVID-19 patients in Pasuruan, uploaded on YouTube and the online news media i-News, and comments from netizens in the comment's column. In addition, informant interviews were conducted to show the factors causing Corpse Snatching. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used for content analysis by describing three dimensions: text, discursive practice, and social practice. It was concluded that the media language used in the news text of the corpse Snatching in Pasuruan tends to use vocabulary that shows negative rather than positive actions. Moreover, the media emphasizes negative actions more than describing solution actions to become government policy steps. Based on informants and studies of the third dimension, hundreds of people who conducted the Corpse Snatching were caused because people hardly accept COVID-19 protocols since they hold Kejawen Islamic funeral traditions.