Coronavirus may well be the most hyperreal event in world history: the difference between the reality and the media coverage of its spread and the social reaction to it is the greatest ever.
Thus it is most important to be aware of the mainstream media narratives surrounding covid-19, especially as we're all consuming more media now we're in enforced isolation.
On a cursory analysis I've found 13 mainstream media narratives surrounding covid-19
- Panic and Risk (uncritical use of statistics)
- Enforcing the importance of social control
- 'The War footing'
- New villains
- Noble citizen surveillers
- Celebrities 'like us' in isolation
- Noble Corporations ‘doing their bit’
- Sharing ‘isolation coping strategies’, while staying isolated
- Victims: Private tragedies made public
- New heroes (frontline workers and volunteers, especially NHS workers)
- The importance of trusting medical experts/ technical solutions to Covid-19
- The economic impact/ bailout of covid-19/ ‘pulling through this together’
- Blame other countries or poor migrants
An analysis of the mainstream media narratives surrounding covid-19
In the video below I walk through a few of the main news sources and take a look at the very narrow media agenda surrounding this global event....
Do you agree? Are there more, less?
Unfortunately I had to upload this video to YouTube as 