Abstract
ABSTRACT This essay analyzes the structures of recognition underlying the reception of three video narratives telling stories of Covid-19 survivors. Published by top US news networks between March and April 2020, these recordings were intended to reassure the American public that the epidemic would be contained. Taking as its point of departure Priscilla Wald’s work on repetitive patterns in the formula of communicable disease outbreaks, and Rita Felski’s theory of recognition, this essay examines 832 comments associated with the videos. It argues that viewers’ engagement can be assessed looking at the new meanings commenters add to the contents of the recordings, and proposes to delineate the contours of a useful theoretical framework for future research on the relationship between reassurance, recognition, and repetition in the outbreak narrative.
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