Virus Image In The Chinese Media: Comparative Analysis Of Coronavirus And Ebola Metaphoric Represantation

Abstract

This article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the representation of the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak and the 2020 coronavirus epidemic in the Chinese media. Adopting a cognitive-discursive approach, the author carries out a content-analysis of two DIY-corpora of media texts, after which the results are supplemented by an analysis of conceptual metaphorical models with the VIRUS target domain in the headlines and leads of the news reports. The results suggest serious differences in the representation of the image of the virus, indicating a significant dependence of metaphorical models on extralinguistic factors. The image of Ebola appears as a dangerous phenomenon. The authors of media messages describing the coronavirus avoid information about the causes and consequences of the virus, the image of the virus is not supplied with a large number of estimative adjectives. The analysis of metaphorical models demonstrated the dominance of the WAR metaphor in both corpora, but the entailments of this metaphor were very different. In the case of Ebola, we encounter a large number of enemy attack metaphors, where health workers are war heroes. Texts about the coronavirus draws the image of public protecting against an external enemy. In general, the coronavirus appears to be dangerous but not capable of causing catastrophic consequences. The Chinese media paint the image of the coronavirus as an external enemy, which attacked the country out of the blue. At the same time, the consequences of this attack are minimized by all means.