Abstract
This paper explores news media discourse about COVID-19 during the spring of 2020 in Sweden, aiming to provide an understanding of how moralising discourse is employed in narratives about public health risks and responses. We investigate print news media content about the corona virus and COVID-19 during the early stages of the outbreak, guided analytically by framework focusing on the relationship between moral panics and moral regulation. We direct attention, first, to how both moral majorities and villains, i.e., ‘folk devils’, and heroes are constructed in the news. Secondly, we look at how visions for interventions are produced discursively in relation to such constructions. Our findings suggest that moralising discourse largely target risk behaviours and health care claims of middle-class groups. We also find that news media discourse about the pandemic in Sweden is marked by attacks on government interventions that are distinctly different from observations in other contexts. In conclusion, we discuss these observations in relation the political and discursive context, and the potential impact of moralising discourse on the legitimacy of public health interventions and the welfare state. Finally, we also discuss how our findings can inform theoretical discussions about political populism, moralising discourse and public health.
Highlights
The classification of COVID-19 as a pandemic transcends the tech nical understanding of a viral outbreak spreading across large parts of the world
The analysis presented here directs attention to news media narra tives emerging in Sweden during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden
Following Ward’s (2020) call for sociological inquiries into the social implications of the pandemic, the overarching aim of the analysis presented here is to analyse how moralising discourse is employed in news media narratives about public health risks and re sponses
Summary
The classification of COVID-19 as a pandemic transcends the tech nical understanding of a viral outbreak spreading across large parts of the world. The threat of lethal contagion constitutes a significant crisis for society, with potentially grave psychological consequences for its citizens going well beyond the medical seriousness of the disease it self This has been described in relation to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, and later to SARS, H1N1, and avian influenza, giving rise to “public hysteria about vulnerability” (Gilman, 2010). As previous pla gues have left death and devastation behind, their traces remain in collective memories and folklore, conditioning how we prepare for the ‘ one’ and respond to emerging threats Embedded in this culture, the machines of science and media actively participate in the continuous preparations for the outbreak. Calls for prompt action, and the idea that something needs to be done, may take priority over discussions regarding the ways in which interventions relate to intended outcomes (Cohen, 2011)
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