Metaphorical Analogies for ‘MERS’ in Korean Newspaper Headlines

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the interplay between metaphors and social cognition; and between metaphor choice and its users’ ideology, focusing on newspaper headlines about the outbreak of the MERS virus in South Korean society. In particular, it examines how the outbreak of disease as a social threat can be restructured through both Korean social conditions and the different ideological positions of mass media in the society. First, it delineates both the universal and unique metaphorical frames of this illness with respect to the previous research on earlier disease outbreaks including TB, AIDS, and SARS. Subsequently, it analyzes how MERS has been metaphorically framed in the headlines of five major Korean newspapers. This research shows that the Korean newspapers’ metaphorical tropes used to describe MERS are not much different from those of other severe disease outbreaks in other comtemporary cultures. In spite of differing cultural contexts, the globalization of modern mass media helps to make the experience and cognition of global populations similar. Significant differences in metaphorical choices and expressions reflect the political and ideological differences and interests of the various newspapers. Metaphor is actively employed by journalists as a tool to shape their readers’ thoughts and behaviors.