Pandemie, krize a infodemie na distanc: Protohistorická pojednání o epoše covidu-19
Pandemic, Crises and Infodemics at a Distance: Protohistorical Treatises on the COVID-19 Era

Summary/Abstract: The reviewer reports on three publications on the Covid-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. The first book, entitled simply "Pandemie" [Pandemic], and its loose sequel "Pandemie: Anatomie krize" [Pandemic: Anatomy of a Crisis], are the work of journalist and until recently Czech Television foreign correspondent Michal Kubal and media analyst Vojtěch Gibiš. The third publication, entitled "Covid-19 infodemie" [Covid-19 Infodemic], is the result of a collaboration between Václav Moravec, a journalist and well-known presenter on Czech Television, and a team of experts led by Ladislav Dušek, director of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic (Ústav zdravotnických informací a statistiky ČR) and professor at the Masaryk University in Brno, who is regarded as the leading expert on Czech medicine statistics. The reviewer characterizes these works as protohistorical examples of “engaged observation”, outlines their content and approaches, and highlights their value for providing a detailed account of recent events and for informing future historical research on the “Covid era”. The initial two publications were created during the 2020–2021 pandemic with the objective of documenting first-hand accounts of the exceptional events that transpired during that period in various regions and domains of Czech society, and to a certain extent, globally. The author duo employed a chronologically layered description and “travelogue guide”, drawing primarily on contemporary print and electronic media production and numerous interviews with selected individuals. The initial focus on personal narratives and accounts of heroism shifts in the second publication to an examination of the broader dimensions of the health crisis and the national emergency. The third title represents an interdisciplinary work of a conceptual and analytical nature, situated at the intersection of media studies, biostatistics, electronic culture and semiotics. It examines the transformations of the Czech media environment during the pandemic and, drawing on the Czech case, seeks to introduce and elaborate the concept of the so-called infodemic (and infodemiology).

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