Abstract
Using a multimodal discursive approach, this study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic is constructed and used in press reportage to mobilize intergroup relations and national identities. We examine how press reporting about the development of COVID-19 in Sweden is cast as a matter of nationalism and national stereotyping in the Finnish press. The data consist of 183 images with accompanying headlines and captions published in two Finnish national newspapers between January 1 and August 31, 2020. We found three multimodal rhetorical strategies of stereotyping: moralizing, demonizing, and nationalizing. These strategies construct discourses of arrogant, immoral, and dangerous Swedes sourcing from national stereotypes. The study contributes to current knowledge about the work on national stereotypes by illustrating how they are used in media discourse to achieve certain rhetorical ends, such as to persuade, mitigate, or justify intergroup relations. Furthermore, the study offers insight into the multimodal constructions and functions of stereotypes.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news since the outbreak of the virus in late 2019
While some scholars have outlined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nationalism (e.g. Bieber, 2020; Van Assche et al, 2020), this link remains empirically underexplored. To fill this gap and answer the call to engage in a detailed analysis of coronavirus-related rhetoric (Smith and Gibson, 2020), our study explores how press images of the national out-group are constructed and mobilized in the context of media reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic to boost nationalism
We examine how press reporting about the development of the COVID-19 situation in Sweden is cast as a matter of nationalism and national stereotyping in the Finnish press
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news since the outbreak of the virus in late 2019. Van Assche et al (2020) demonstrated that news about fellow (in-group) nationals and other (out-group) peoples breaking coronavirus restrictions elicited stronger negative emotions toward the norm-violating out-groups. This suggests that highlighting salient preexisting group boundaries and differences between the behavior of in- and out-groups can further increase discrimination (Templeton et al, 2020). These findings are in line with previous studies on diseases – such as HIV, SARS, and Ebola – and the process of ‘othering’, whereby blame and responsibility for spreading the virus are first assigned to foreigners or out-groups within a society rather than the national in-group (Joffe, 1999; Washer, 2006)
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