Viral Discourse

This Element consists of ten short pieces written by prominent discourse analysts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each piece focuses on a different aspect of the pandemic, from the debate over wearing face masks to the metaphors used by politicians and journalists in different countries to talk about the virus. Each of the pieces also makes use of a different approach to analysing discourse (e.g. Critical Discourse Analysis, Genre Analysis, Corpus Assisted Discourse Analysis) and demonstrates how that approach can be applied to a small set of data. The aim of the Element is to show how the range of tools available to discourse analysts can be brought to bear on a pressing, 'real-world' problem, and how discourse analysis can contribute to formulating 'real-world' solutions to the problem.

1. Introduction: are discourse analysts 'essential workers' Rodney H. Jones; 2. The veil of civilization and the semiotics of the mask Rodney H. Jones; 3. Communicating expertise in the COVID-19 pandemic: a genre analytical perspective Christoph Hafner; 4. Face masks and cultural identity on YouTube Wing Yee Jenifer Ho; 5. Investigating media representations of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK, USA and Germany: what can a comparative corpus-based discourse analysis contribute to our understanding of the pandemic? Sylvia Jaworska; 6. Sense and sensibility: urban public signs during a pandemic Zhu Hua; 7. When the internet gets 'coronafied': pandemic creativity and humour in internet memes Erhan Aslan; 8. #HateIsAVirus: talking about COVID-19 'hate' Carmen Lee; 9. Order out of chaos: coronavirus communication and the construction of competence Rodney H. Jones; 10. How to make sense of communication and interaction in a pandemic Elisabetta Amadi.