Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, it has become a source of worry across countries within the global space. It has posed not only a health challenge but also an economic and a linguistic burden. Linguistic burden because many efforts are being made by stakeholders to appropriately represent or codify the manifestations of the disease in unambiguous and understandable terms. Hence, one of the major platforms where COVID-19 has been variously represented is the social media. This study, therefore, focuses on a multimodal analysis of the representation of the COVID-19 pandemic on two social media platforms: Facebook and WhatsApp. The study adopts Kress’s social semiotic model as theoretical framework. This model explains the meaning affordances of verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources. It examines communicators’ intentions and makes meanings through multiple semiotic modes. This model is adopted because it offers a sociological perspective to the interpretation of visual texts. Twenty-five semiotic resources comprising memes and flash headlines, which were purposively sourced from Facebook and WhatsApp over a period of twelve weeks between April and July 2020, were analysed in the study. The data were subjected to both pictorial and simple descriptive linguistic analysis. The study reveals that COVID-19 memes extend economic and social concerns in Nigeria. The semiotic resources expose social problems such as poverty, insecurity and inequality in the Nigerian society which pose a threat to strict adherence to safety measures; and establish the manifestation of religion and gender issues in COVID-19 debates. Furthermore, it provides informative-cum-instructional functions in the fight against COVID-19. The study suggests that the deployment of appropriate linguistic and extralinguistic codes could guarantee effective and targeted public health enlightenment on COVID-19.
{"title":"Language in a pandemic: A multimodal analysis of social media representation of COVID-19","authors":"O. Adebomi","doi":"10.1386/jams_00062_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00062_1","url":null,"abstract":"Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, it has become a source of worry across countries within the global space. It has posed not only a health challenge but also an economic and a linguistic burden. Linguistic burden because many efforts are being made by stakeholders to appropriately represent or codify the manifestations of the disease in unambiguous and understandable terms. Hence, one of the major platforms where COVID-19 has been variously represented is the social media. This study, therefore, focuses on a multimodal analysis of the representation of the COVID-19 pandemic on two social media platforms: Facebook and WhatsApp. The study adopts Kress’s social semiotic model as theoretical framework. This model explains the meaning affordances of verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources. It examines communicators’ intentions and makes meanings through multiple semiotic modes. This model is adopted because it offers a sociological perspective to the interpretation of visual texts. Twenty-five semiotic resources comprising memes and flash headlines, which were purposively sourced from Facebook and WhatsApp over a period of twelve weeks between April and July 2020, were analysed in the study. The data were subjected to both pictorial and simple descriptive linguistic analysis. The study reveals that COVID-19 memes extend economic and social concerns in Nigeria. The semiotic resources expose social problems such as poverty, insecurity and inequality in the Nigerian society which pose a threat to strict adherence to safety measures; and establish the manifestation of religion and gender issues in COVID-19 debates. Furthermore, it provides informative-cum-instructional functions in the fight against COVID-19. The study suggests that the deployment of appropriate linguistic and extralinguistic codes could guarantee effective and targeted public health enlightenment on COVID-19.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85243268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Based on virtual ethnography and online interviews, we provide new evidence of how fact-checking organizations based in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia responded to the influx of conspiracy theories, mis- and disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study seeks to answer the following questions: What kind of responses did ZimFact, Africa Check and Namibia Fact Check put in place to combat the spread of the ‘disinfodemic’ during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Southern Africa? To what extent were these interventions effective in terms of combating the viral spread of the ‘disinfodemic’ in the broader information ecosystem? It argues that through a combination of manual and technology-enabled verification processes, these organizations were partly able to debunk some of the harmful, conspiratorial and misleading claims related to the coronavirus. It demonstrates that fact-checking alone is not enough to stem the ‘disinfodemic’ unless it is complemented by an ecosystem that prioritizes access to information, media literacy initiatives, proactive takedown interventions by platform companies and increased public awareness on truthful and credible public health information. Furthermore, fact-checking organizations need to increase the speed at which they respond to the ‘disinfodemic’ if virality, which is the major driver of this ‘phenomenon’, is to be mitigated. We recommend that fact-checkers should implement efficient mechanisms of decentralizing their activities, amplify the sharing of verified information, forge collaborative initiatives with key actors and ramp up critical media literacy programmes.
{"title":"Guardians of truth? Fact-checking the ‘disinfodemic’ in Southern Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Admire Mare, Allen Munoriyarwa","doi":"10.1386/jams_00065_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00065_1","url":null,"abstract":"Based on virtual ethnography and online interviews, we provide new evidence of how fact-checking organizations based in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia responded to the influx of conspiracy theories, mis- and disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study seeks to answer the following questions: What kind of responses did ZimFact, Africa Check and Namibia Fact Check put in place to combat the spread of the ‘disinfodemic’ during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Southern Africa? To what extent were these interventions effective in terms of combating the viral spread of the ‘disinfodemic’ in the broader information ecosystem? It argues that through a combination of manual and technology-enabled verification processes, these organizations were partly able to debunk some of the harmful, conspiratorial and misleading claims related to the coronavirus. It demonstrates that fact-checking alone is not enough to stem the ‘disinfodemic’ unless it is complemented by an ecosystem that prioritizes access to information, media literacy initiatives, proactive takedown interventions by platform companies and increased public awareness on truthful and credible public health information. Furthermore, fact-checking organizations need to increase the speed at which they respond to the ‘disinfodemic’ if virality, which is the major driver of this ‘phenomenon’, is to be mitigated. We recommend that fact-checkers should implement efficient mechanisms of decentralizing their activities, amplify the sharing of verified information, forge collaborative initiatives with key actors and ramp up critical media literacy programmes.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86517520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
South Africa has had a long history of institutionalized racial segregation and although it came to an end in the early 1990s, the level of power, racial and inequalities are still evident to date, making South Africa one of the most unequal societies in the world. Kenya, on the other hand, has had its share of inequalities, particularly inclined towards political and ethnic dimensions. The emergence of COVID-19 has further uncovered social and political fractures within the two societies with racialized and discriminatory responses to fear disproportionately affecting marginalized groups. Using qualitative research design, and case study approach, a corpus of tweets from social media archive (Twitter) when the first COVID-19 cases were recorded in both countries were analysed to ascertain the conversations occurring and if it re-enforces existing postcolonial issues. The study argued that Twitter conversations that occurred in both countries show that postcolonial issues of power and race are rife and appeared in many public conversations on social media.
{"title":"Imagine dying from an overseas disease, when you do not even own a passport: A critical analysis of Twitter conversations in the wake of COVID-19 in Kenya and South Africa","authors":"J. Mwaura, Ufuoma Akpojivi","doi":"10.1386/jams_00063_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00063_1","url":null,"abstract":"South Africa has had a long history of institutionalized racial segregation and although it came to an end in the early 1990s, the level of power, racial and inequalities are still evident to date, making South Africa one of the most unequal societies in the world. Kenya, on the other hand, has had its share of inequalities, particularly inclined towards political and ethnic dimensions. The emergence of COVID-19 has further uncovered social and political fractures within the two societies with racialized and discriminatory responses to fear disproportionately affecting marginalized groups. Using qualitative research design, and case study approach, a corpus of tweets from social media archive (Twitter) when the first COVID-19 cases were recorded in both countries were analysed to ascertain the conversations occurring and if it re-enforces existing postcolonial issues. The study argued that Twitter conversations that occurred in both countries show that postcolonial issues of power and race are rife and appeared in many public conversations on social media.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77659470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
When the first death from Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was reported in Kenya on 15 March 2020 the mainstream media seemed to play its role of sensitizing the public and giving coverage as the government enforced regulations to fight the pandemic. However, a critical observation indicated that the media were not doing much more than government propaganda. The focus of this study is to analyse the ideology that drives the Kenyan mainstream media. The research particularly focuses on the study of photographs that were published in Kenya’s two leading newspapers, the Daily Nation and The Standard, between 15 March and 30 April 2020, to decode the ideological meanings hidden in the photographs. This study is guided by these three research questions: how is the fight against COVID-19 photographically represented in Kenyan newspapers? What mythic meanings are embedded in these photographs? What ideological nuances can be read in these photographs? The analysis used Roland Barthes’s framework of semiotic analysis. Findings show that the photographs published in the two newspapers in the period of study support the dominant government ideology and promote gender and class inequality.
{"title":"Analysing the mythologies and the ideological nuances in photographic representation of COVID-19 containment in Kenya’s newspapers","authors":"Joseph N. Nyanoti","doi":"10.1386/jams_00068_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00068_1","url":null,"abstract":"When the first death from Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was reported in Kenya on 15 March 2020 the mainstream media seemed to play its role of sensitizing the public and giving coverage as the government enforced regulations to fight the pandemic. However, a critical observation indicated that the media were not doing much more than government propaganda. The focus of this study is to analyse the ideology that drives the Kenyan mainstream media. The research particularly focuses on the study of photographs that were published in Kenya’s two leading newspapers, the Daily Nation and The Standard, between 15 March and 30 April 2020, to decode the ideological meanings hidden in the photographs. This study is guided by these three research questions: how is the fight against COVID-19 photographically represented in Kenyan newspapers? What mythic meanings are embedded in these photographs? What ideological nuances can be read in these photographs? The analysis used Roland Barthes’s framework of semiotic analysis. Findings show that the photographs published in the two newspapers in the period of study support the dominant government ideology and promote gender and class inequality.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82527707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This research is conducted to ascertain informed public’s views on Nigerian government’s management of news and information during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Nigeria. Purposively selected participants were engaged in a WhatsApp conference to investigate how they perceive government’s management of news and information on the pandemic; expose government’s efforts in disseminating news and information, and its influence on the overall management and control of the disease in Nigeria. Using framing theory in its analysis, the article argues that government’s nepotistic, secretive management of news and information on COVID adversely affected public trust, which is read as a form of censorship through silence designed to obstruct transparency, accountability and citizenship participation on national issues, contrary to the principles of Open Government Partnership (OGP) which Nigeria, is member to. The article reiterates on the need for government to build the confidence of Nigerians and boost its overall image.
{"title":"Nigerian government and management of news and information on the coronavirus pandemic","authors":"G. Ernest-Samuel, N. Uduma","doi":"10.1386/jams_00070_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00070_1","url":null,"abstract":"This research is conducted to ascertain informed public’s views on Nigerian government’s management of news and information during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Nigeria. Purposively selected participants were engaged in a WhatsApp conference to investigate how they perceive government’s management of news and information on the pandemic; expose government’s efforts in disseminating news and information, and its influence on the overall management and control of the disease in Nigeria. Using framing theory in its analysis, the article argues that government’s nepotistic, secretive management of news and information on COVID adversely affected public trust, which is read as a form of censorship through silence designed to obstruct transparency, accountability and citizenship participation on national issues, contrary to the principles of Open Government Partnership (OGP) which Nigeria, is member to. The article reiterates on the need for government to build the confidence of Nigerians and boost its overall image.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87511475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Coronaviruses have been in existence for over five decades – shaking and taking lives around the world. COVID-19 is similar to others in this regard, but different because it has had a more global impact, causing more deaths than previous life-threatening viruses. In order to reduce deaths and curtail the virus, different communication forms are being used in various countries. Hinged on the agenda-setting and the individual differences theories of media, this study analyses the use of photographs, comedy and music in communicating coronavirus messages on Instagram, the influence of these messages on preventive measures and the attitude of Nigerian citizens to prevention tips based on the content of the messages. Using mixed method of qualitative content analysis and survey, 120 Instagram COVID-19 messages from sixteen social media skit creators/influencers were analysed. Responses of 247 survey respondents, mostly from South West Nigeria, were used to examine the influence of these messages on citizens’ preventive habits. Results of the study reveal that different methods including pictures, comedy, music, satire and spoken words were used in communicating coronavirus messages and preventive tips on Instagram. However, music, comedy, photograph and short film messages gained more attention and responses from citizens. Citizens identified them as helpful in cultivating preventive habits because these messages were easier to remember and they gave detailed explanations of prevention habits citizens should adhere to in order to curtail the spread of coronavirus. Media should therefore continue to use different strategies, especially music, comedy, photographs and short films, to reach citizens.
{"title":"The influence of photographs, music and comedy in Instagram coronavirus messages on adult preventive habits","authors":"IfeKristi T. Ayo-Obiremi","doi":"10.1386/jams_00067_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00067_1","url":null,"abstract":"Coronaviruses have been in existence for over five decades – shaking and taking lives around the world. COVID-19 is similar to others in this regard, but different because it has had a more global impact, causing more deaths than previous life-threatening viruses. In order to reduce deaths and curtail the virus, different communication forms are being used in various countries. Hinged on the agenda-setting and the individual differences theories of media, this study analyses the use of photographs, comedy and music in communicating coronavirus messages on Instagram, the influence of these messages on preventive measures and the attitude of Nigerian citizens to prevention tips based on the content of the messages. Using mixed method of qualitative content analysis and survey, 120 Instagram COVID-19 messages from sixteen social media skit creators/influencers were analysed. Responses of 247 survey respondents, mostly from South West Nigeria, were used to examine the influence of these messages on citizens’ preventive habits. Results of the study reveal that different methods including pictures, comedy, music, satire and spoken words were used in communicating coronavirus messages and preventive tips on Instagram. However, music, comedy, photograph and short film messages gained more attention and responses from citizens. Citizens identified them as helpful in cultivating preventive habits because these messages were easier to remember and they gave detailed explanations of prevention habits citizens should adhere to in order to curtail the spread of coronavirus. Media should therefore continue to use different strategies, especially music, comedy, photographs and short films, to reach citizens.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80984478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The coverage of crises such as the global health pandemic, COVID-19, is to a large extent guided by national interest, journalistic culture and editorial policies of media outlets. This article argues that the state-controlled newspaper, The Herald, in Zimbabwe deployed constructive journalism as an approach to report COVID-19. Constructive journalism is about injecting positive angles into news reports while abiding by the core news values of accuracy, impartiality and balance. The findings reveal that constructive journalism elements of solutions orientation, future orientation, and explanation and contextualization were frequently deployed by The Herald to advance a safe nation narrative whose objective was to prevent public hysteria in the face of a deadly COVID-19 outbreak in the country. The paper concludes that the deployment of constructive journalism in less developed countries like Zimbabwe to inspire hope through positive psychology in the face of global crises does not always yield the intended outcomes.
{"title":"An evaluation of constructive journalism in Zimbabwe: A case study of The Herald’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic","authors":"T. Tshabangu, A. Salawu","doi":"10.1386/jams_00060_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00060_1","url":null,"abstract":"The coverage of crises such as the global health pandemic, COVID-19, is to a large extent guided by national interest, journalistic culture and editorial policies of media outlets. This article argues that the state-controlled newspaper, The Herald, in Zimbabwe deployed constructive\u0000 journalism as an approach to report COVID-19. Constructive journalism is about injecting positive angles into news reports while abiding by the core news values of accuracy, impartiality and balance. The findings reveal that constructive journalism elements of solutions orientation, future\u0000 orientation, and explanation and contextualization were frequently deployed by The Herald to advance a safe nation narrative whose objective was to prevent public hysteria in the face of a deadly COVID-19 outbreak in the country. The paper concludes that the deployment of constructive\u0000 journalism in less developed countries like Zimbabwe to inspire hope through positive psychology in the face of global crises does not always yield the intended outcomes.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74644054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In April 2020, two French doctors discussed on television the idea of testing a COVID-19 vaccine in Africa. The controversial utterances were widely condemned, subsequently leading the doctors apologizing. Using thematic analysis, and drawing on Stuart Hall’s encoding‐decoding model and the concepts of coloniality and decoloniality, this article analyses responses to the doctors’ statements by social media users. Of the decoding positions proposed by Stuart Hall, many Facebook users occupied the oppositional decoding position. Facebook users dethroned ideas rooted in colonialism that positioned Europeans as superior thought leaders and Africans as inferior and passive recipients of western knowledges and leadership. They also dismissed the doctors as flagrant racists. Facebook users affirmed that Africans were not guinea pigs and Africa was not a laboratory. The visceral pushbacks by social media users discredited and delegitimized the doctors’ ideas as well as to foster solidarity among Africans in disparate locations.
{"title":"‘Subaltern’ pushbacks: An analysis of responses by Facebook users to ‘racist’ statements by two French doctors on testing a COVID-19 vaccine in Africa","authors":"S. Mudavanhu","doi":"10.1386/jams_00051_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00051_1","url":null,"abstract":"In April 2020, two French doctors discussed on television the idea of testing a COVID-19 vaccine in Africa. The controversial utterances were widely condemned, subsequently leading the doctors apologizing. Using thematic analysis, and drawing on Stuart Hall’s encoding‐decoding\u0000 model and the concepts of coloniality and decoloniality, this article analyses responses to the doctors’ statements by social media users. Of the decoding positions proposed by Stuart Hall, many Facebook users occupied the oppositional decoding position. Facebook users dethroned ideas\u0000 rooted in colonialism that positioned Europeans as superior thought leaders and Africans as inferior and passive recipients of western knowledges and leadership. They also dismissed the doctors as flagrant racists. Facebook users affirmed that Africans were not guinea pigs and Africa was not\u0000 a laboratory. The visceral pushbacks by social media users discredited and delegitimized the doctors’ ideas as well as to foster solidarity among Africans in disparate locations.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88848296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
China has been a pivotal player throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, yet there is very little research on how China’s role and effort have been interpreted among African countries that are diverged in their crisis responses. Through content and discourse analysis of the local media and more than 50 in-depth interviews, this study investigates media representation of China during the coronavirus pandemic in the Kenyan and Ethiopian newspapers, specifically Kenyan’s Daily Nation and The Standard, and the Ethiopian Herald and The Reporter. This study finds that Kenyan newspapers adopted a more critical and problem-centred narrative, as many of its news articles are organized around problems such as the ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, and the mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou during the pandemic. Unlike Kenyan newspapers, Ethiopian newspapers adopted a more positive and favourable tone towards China. This article also captures the dynamics behind the production of China-related news during the pandemic, and discusses how the media environment, professional norms, journalistic habitus, the ‘rules of games’ (i.e. who counts as an important source) have fundamentally shaped the news production.
{"title":"Media representation of China in the time of pandemic: A comparative study of Kenyan and Ethiopian media","authors":"Hang Li","doi":"10.1386/jams_00057_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00057_1","url":null,"abstract":"China has been a pivotal player throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, yet there is very little research on how China’s role and effort have been interpreted among African countries that are diverged in their crisis responses. Through content and discourse analysis of the local media\u0000 and more than 50 in-depth interviews, this study investigates media representation of China during the coronavirus pandemic in the Kenyan and Ethiopian newspapers, specifically Kenyan’s Daily Nation and The Standard, and the Ethiopian Herald and The Reporter.\u0000 This study finds that Kenyan newspapers adopted a more critical and problem-centred narrative, as many of its news articles are organized around problems such as the ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, and the mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou during the pandemic. Unlike Kenyan newspapers,\u0000 Ethiopian newspapers adopted a more positive and favourable tone towards China. This article also captures the dynamics behind the production of China-related news during the pandemic, and discusses how the media environment, professional norms, journalistic habitus, the ‘rules\u0000 of games’ (i.e. who counts as an important source) have fundamentally shaped the news production.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79863673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In response to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, different religious-immune conspiracy theories emerged to explain the increasing scary situation in Nigeria. Emerging multifarious narratives of the contagion, which are embedded in peculiar Nigerian socio-religiosity and religious economy, reconstructed the discourses into two complexities: corona disease is an invention of the devil and other dark evil forces, and corona disease is a sign of the end of times. The obvious fabrications escalated uncertainties surrounding the pandemic as well as generated anxiety and fears among potential believers who sermonize spiritual vigilance for the ‘final battle and journey’. Drawing insights from critical discourse analysis, moral panic and frame theory, this study explores discursive means through which the pandemic is represented and reconstructed as long-awaited ‘doomsday’ warning in Nigerian online communities. Findings reveal instances of varying descriptive names, lexical derivations and discursive frames that reflect counter belief and quasi-religious ideologies. The study argues that complex religious doctrines rooted in antichrist or mark of the beast view, socio-religious ideologies of dominionism and overcommernism, cultural and personal linguistic processes have all contributed in shaping and institutionalizing the viral ‘apocalyptic’ world-view of the outbreak.
{"title":"From COVID-19 to COVID-666: Quasi-religious mentality and ideologies in Nigerian coronavirus pandemic discourse","authors":"Lily Chimuanya, E. Igwebuike","doi":"10.1386/jams_00056_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00056_1","url":null,"abstract":"In response to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, different religious-immune conspiracy theories emerged to explain the increasing scary situation in Nigeria. Emerging multifarious narratives of the contagion, which are embedded in peculiar Nigerian socio-religiosity and\u0000 religious economy, reconstructed the discourses into two complexities: corona disease is an invention of the devil and other dark evil forces, and corona disease is a sign of the end of times. The obvious fabrications escalated uncertainties surrounding the pandemic as well as generated anxiety\u0000 and fears among potential believers who sermonize spiritual vigilance for the ‘final battle and journey’. Drawing insights from critical discourse analysis, moral panic and frame theory, this study explores discursive means through which the pandemic is represented and reconstructed\u0000 as long-awaited ‘doomsday’ warning in Nigerian online communities. Findings reveal instances of varying descriptive names, lexical derivations and discursive frames that reflect counter belief and quasi-religious ideologies. The study argues that complex religious doctrines rooted\u0000 in antichrist or mark of the beast view, socio-religious ideologies of dominionism and overcommernism, cultural and personal linguistic processes have all contributed in shaping and institutionalizing the viral ‘apocalyptic’ world-view of the outbreak.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80698149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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