Social representations of ‘social distancing’ in response to COVID-19 in the UK media

Brigitte Nerlich,Rusi Jaspal

doi:10.1177/0011392121990030

Brigitte Nerlich, Rusi Jaspal

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392121990030

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Abstract

The emergence and spread of a new pandemic, COVID-19, have raised topics of concern for health professionals, policy makers and publics across the globe. Governments have struggled to find the right policies to stop disease transmission, but all have introduced social distancing. In the United Kingdom this has come to be understood as staying at home and, when outside, maintaining a physical distance of approximately two metres between oneself and others. In this article, the authors examine the emergence of this new social representation as portrayed in one UK broadsheet and one tabloid with the widest circulation: The Times and The Sun, between early March and early April 2020. Using social representations theory and thematic analysis, the authors show that social distancing struggled to emerge from underneath government obfuscation. It was first seen as a threat to normal life, which in modernity is predicated on mobility; it was later portrayed as a threat to social order; and finally perceived as a burden that, like the lockdown (its conceptual twin), needed to be lifted.

Highlights

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease, caused by SARS-CoV-2
We examine a small sample of media/social representations at key points in the UK government’s risk communication efforts
The analysis focuses on emerging media and social representations of government messaging on ‘social distancing’

Summary

Introduction

Since its first clinical observations in Wuhan, Hubei province, China in December 2019, the virus has spread around the world and, on 11 March 2020, was declared a pandemic. The United Kingdom introduced a policy of ‘social distancing’, which prohibited physical contact with people outside of one’s household (Government Guidance, 2020), and announced a nationwide lockdown on 23 March. Social distancing has emerged as a central tenet of the UK government’s COVID-19 response. Not everyone understands social distancing in the same way, which has been attributed, in part, to ‘mixed messages’ from the government and other institutions An analysis of emerging social representations may in turn enable us to understand and predict how people will think and act in response to the pandemic

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