Media mechanisms of generating emotions during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Interdisciplinary research report

Abstract

Abstract Aim. This report illustrates a research on the mediatization of emotions during the first wave of Covid-19 in an interdisciplinary approach. The mechanisms of emotions generation in media messages as well as the content and visual elements of functioning of the pandemic’s subject in culture or religion have been described. Material and methods. The research was carried out on multimodal media publications on the pandemic in global messages. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the research (social sciences, humanities, social communication and media sciences), a set of research methods and techniques was used: content analysis, analysis of visual metaphors or workshop analysis of the media message. Results. The mediatization of emotions in various areas of social life was examined on the basis of media analysis of religious, consumer-economic, educational, cultural messages. A catalogue of mechanisms for the mediatization of emotions in media coverage was created. New symbols representing the SarsCov-2 pandemic were shown. Conclusions. The research shows that the mediatization of factors is a process of mediation not only in learning about and creating social reality, but also in controlling attention. During the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, this role was played by emotional media discourses and mechanisms of generating emotions in the media message.