Discursive Construction of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Media

Abstract

COVID-19 affected the lives of many people as this unknown virus became very fast a pandemic. As a result, all mass media were interested in communicating news concerning this pandemic. The mass media have a crucial role in communicating events as truthfully as possible; nevertheless, many mass media communicate messages with a hidden ideology to spread fear and uncertainty, usually using narrative techniques which might be imperceptible at first sight. Therefore, this thesis aims to analyse two British newspapers to find out whether these narrative techniques are employed and what possible impact they could have on their readers.