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Journal article
A qualitative analysis of newspaper response to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa
The Journal of Pan African Studies, Vol.10, pp.224-239
10
2017
Abstract
This study utilizes a qualitative interpretive descriptive analysis to evaluate the construction of an Ebola outbreak narrative in a corpus of news articles from mainstream Congolese print media available both online and off. The prevalence of medical as opposed to superstitious or alarmist linguistic usages, and types of metaphor employed in media representations were identified and categorized. Hence, three themes emerged from a dominant metaphor of warfare as used in the selected articles, namely that the general population was depicted as a potential victim, while public institutions were portrayed as heroes or warriors fighting the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), the invaders or offenders. And it was concluded that controlling outbreaks of diseases in low-income countries requires an effective preventative strategy that both underscores patterns relevant to the spread of the disease and is culturally appropriate to the affected population, and that future interventions against EVD in Africa may therefore benefit from using a media strategy similar to the approach used in Congolese print media as part of a wider campaign to decrease risk factors associated with the spread of EVD.
Details
- Title
- A qualitative analysis of newspaper response to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa
- Publication Details
- The Journal of Pan African Studies, Vol.10, pp.224-239
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- California Institute of Pan African Studies; Fresno, California
- Series
- 10
- Format
- pdf
- Identifiers
- 99380090629706600
- Academic Unit
- Public Health; Usha Kundu, MD College of Health
- Language
- English