The media construction of the coronavirus through the verbs used by the European press

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2024-376

Keywords:

COVID-19, coronavirus, semantic prosody, intensification, mitigation, discourse analysis, informational bias, European press

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant media impact in Europe. Consequently, this study aims to understand the discursive construction that the European press has created regarding this health crisis by analysing the verbs used by journalists in conjunction with the term "coronavirus". Methodology: A study has been conducted on the semantic prosody of the term "coronavirus" in the media discourse of three European newspapers: El País (Spain), Le Figaro (France), and La Repubblica (Italy), during the week following the WHO’s declaration of the pandemic. Results and Discussions: A predominantly negative bias has been observed in the co-occurrences of verbs with "coronavirus", intensifying the semantic value of the term. This tendency has been noted more frequently when "coronavirus" acts as the subject of the action rather than as the object. Conclusions: The discursive construction of COVID-19 by European newspapers has been very similar, demonstrating that, regardless of the language used, the three publications have approached this media phenomenon from the same linguistic perspective.

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Author Biography

Álvaro Ramos Ruiz, Universidad Loyola

Álvaro Ramos Ruiz holds a PhD in Audiovisual Communication and Journalism from the University of Granada (Spain) and a PhD in Linguistics from the Université Paris Cité (France). He currently teaches and researches at the Universidad Loyola Andalucía (Spain). He has published articles and book chapters in national and international journals and publishers. Her research focuses on the analysis of media discourse, especially in the study of information bias in the press. He has directed a research project and has participated as a speaker at various national and international conferences. He has also been the recipient of several predoctoral and postdoctoral research grants. In addition, he has collaborated in different media.

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Published

2024-07-19

How to Cite

Ramos Ruiz, Álvaro. (2024). The media construction of the coronavirus through the verbs used by the European press. European Public & Social Innovation Review, 9, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2024-376

Issue

Section

INNOVATING IN PUBLIC INPUTS FOR PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISTIC AND POLITICAL