Communicating Covid-19: Framing Science and Affect in U.S., French and Estonian Traditional Media
Communicating Covid-19: Framing Science and Affect in U.S., French and Estonian Traditional Media

Summary/Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has also been accompanied by an infodemic, which has made effective public communication increasingly difficult. This article compares the mediation of science at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in quality newspapers from the USA, France and Estonia. We will analyse texts from March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as the most important public health challenge in all three countries. We will perform a quantitative and qualitative lexicometric analysis of discourses evoking science and expertise to identify the dominant explanations of science in the context of the crisis. The results will be discussed as manifestations of broader affective practices that shed light on public authorities’ attempts to communicate science and to direct public behaviour. The article shows the importance of language and affect in effective strategic communication.

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