Abstract
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), commonly called a superbug, has recently been a major political issue in the UK, playing a significant role in debates over health policy in the general election held in 2005. While science recognizes the lack of evidence with regards to the effectiveness of existing measures implemented to control and prevent MRSA, the UK media coverage is dominated by articles that appeal to common sense and practical experience calling for more government interventions to combat the bug. In this paper we explore how uncertainty surrounding the origin and spread of MRSA is portrayed in debates within the media and policy-circles to particular political ends. Using established techniques of discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, we examine the assumptions, judgements, and contentions that structure two discourses of MRSA: according to one discourse MRSA is ‘not rocket science’ and there are ‘simple’ ways of coping with the risk of infection, whereas according to another discourse MRSA is a more complex matter and there is ‘no silver bullet’. The analysis of different storylines through which specific ideas of ‘blame’, ‘responsibility’, and ‘urgency’ are attributed helps to explain how different ‘constructions’ of causes for the rise in MRSA emerged and led to discourses of blame and defence centred on cleanliness.
Highlights
Cases of Methicilin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) - strains of bacteria resistant to a number of antibiotics, including methicilin, a derivative of penicillin - have been rising in the UK since the 1990s
This paper explores how the scientific uncertainty surrounding the origin, spread and treatment of MRSA has been exploited within the media and policy-circles to frame the problem of MRSA and the solution to this problem in particular ways and to particular political ends
Using established techniques of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, we will examine the assumptions, judgements and contentions that structure two dominant frames highlighted in the above newspaper extracts: that dealing with MRSA is ‘not rocket science’, i.e. that the problem is amenable to a simple solution - if only one did things ‘properly’, and that there is no 'silver bullet' for dealing with MRSA, i.e. that this a very complex and multi-factorial problem, not amenable to simple solutions
Summary
Cases of Methicilin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) - strains of bacteria resistant to a number of antibiotics, including methicilin, a derivative of penicillin - have been rising in the UK since the 1990s. This article studies the language used in debates about a real world problem, in this case the rise in deaths associated with MRSA infection in the UK. It does so from a multidisciplinary perspective, by integrating methods used in applied linguistics, namely corpus linguistics, with methods commonly used in the study of social representations of infectious diseases, namely discourse and frame analysis (Mansotte 2004; Wallis and Nerlich 2005; Washer 2006; Washer and Joffe 2006), and it does so in order to foster cross-disciplinary reflection and innovation. We will show how the interpretative approach used to identify frames can be combined with the quantitative methods of corpus linguistics to assist with (but not eliminate) the sensitive matter of ‘an interpreter’s bias’ – a much discussed problem in (critical) discourse analysis (see Orpin 2005 for an overview; see Teubert 2001; Stubbs 2006)
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