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Fear Culture in Media

An Examination on Coronavirus Discourse

Bibliographic Data

ID21998291
AuthorsTetyana A Chaiuk (0000-0001-5318-688X, Philips (Finland)), Olha Dunaievska (0000-0002-0915-428X, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), Olha Valeriivna Dunaievska
Year2020
Volume9
Issue2
Pages184
Publication date2020-06-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of History Culture and Art Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2147-0626 • E-ISSN: 2147-0626
PublisherKarabuk University (PUBLISHER • TR)
DOI10.7596/taksad.v9i2.2636
OpenAlexW3041399995
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited5

Fear culture has become a central perspective of viewing life in Western societies where the feeling of vulnerability and insecurity has increased over the past few decades. Sociological studies on the culture of fear provide the theoretical background for understanding how the media coverage of the coronavirus outbreak helps to cultivate the audience’s anxiety. The purpose of this article is to examine how the COVID-19 outbreak was presented in British newspapers and what language means were used to breed the anticipation of danger even before the first lethal case was registered in the UK, that is from January 1 to March 5, 2020. To identify the verbal means employed by newspapers to present the coronavirus as the ultimate threat and thus to cultivate a fear culture among their readers, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is chosen as the main method of the research, since it looks into how language means are used in media texts to produce an intended effect on audiences. The study reveals that the newspapers' editorials, headings, and articles of that period framed the coronavirus pandemic in terms of fear-mongering by dramatizing reports on the epidemic in China, by metaphorically presenting the coronavirus as deadly living thing approaching Great Britain and finally hitting the country like a tsunami, by repeatedly emphasizing the globality of the pandemic and inadequacy of the government’s measure to curb the disease

Anxiety · Disease · Distrust · Feeling · Globality · Globalization · Linguistics · Media studies · Newspaper · Pandemic · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Humor Studies and Applications · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology

  • Coronaspeak as Key to Coronaculture

    Open Access•Iryna Alyeksyeyeva, Iryna O Alyeksyeyeva et al.•International Journal of English…•2020

  • Strategi Resistensi dan Bertahan dalam Pandemi

    Open Access•Ahmad Al Amin Putra, Shuri Mariasih Gietty Tambunan et al.•Ideas Jurnal Pendidikan Sosial…•2023

  • Framing a Global Pandemic

    Muhammad Ittefaq, Hong Tien Vu et al.•Health Communication•2025

  • Cultivating Trust for Health Experts During Covid-19

    Jennifer Lau•Journal of Broadcasting &…•2023

  • From the concept of threat to the common sense of societal threat

    Open Access•Petra Pelletier, Ewa Drozda-Senkowska et al.•International Journal of Social…•2024

  • Strategic Subjectivity Shapes User Engagement

    Rita Tang, Yuming Fang et al.•Journalism Practice•2025

  • Media and global pandemics

    Open Access•Tendai Chari, Ufuoma Akpojivi•Journal of African Media Studies•2021

  • Responses to health risk and suffering

    Open Access•Maria Paola Pofi, Wing-Fai Leung•Media Culture & Society•2022

  • Discourse and social change

    Norman Fairclough•Discourse and social change•1993

  • Creating Fear

    David L Altheide•Creating Fear•2018

  • Agenda Setting in a Culture of Fear

    Open Access•Matthew D Matsaganis, J Gregory Payne•American Behavioral Scientist•2005

  • "Mediatization" of Politics

    Gilberto Mazzoleni, Gianpietro Mazzoleni et al.•Political Communication•1999

  • The UK media and 'Europe

    Open Access•Oliver Daddow•International Affairs•2012

Unique citing works8
Citations per year1,33
Citation span2020 - 2025 (6)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 7
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