Mediating COVID-19 Discourse as Mechanism for Institutionalising Culture of Fear: A Review

الملخص

The wave of fear and psychological anxiety triggered by the advent of the novel human coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei Province, Central China, in December 2019, is believed to have been intensified by the already existing ‗culture of fear and anxiety‘. This ‗culture of fear‘ is believed to have been deeply entrenched, most especially, within the Western societies, likewise in other communities around the world, long before the COVID-19 originated. This article reviews related literature on the negative effects of fear-mongering and proliferation of psychological anxiety resulted from the media‘s unfavourable coverage of the disease. It also highlights the way the seemingly overblown COVID-19‘s grand discourse provides a fertile soil for various media organisations, both the mainstream and the online platforms, to partake in spreading excessive anxiety as well as institutionalising the already deep-rooted culture of fear around the globe. The review is focused on select social contexts in Europe, Africa, and Asia. This critique revealed that the discursive construction of the pandemic by the media appears to have been unfavourable and somewhat scary to the public. In so doing, the discourse would be controlled, the masses would be inconceivably subdued by unnecessary fear and anxiety over the pandemic and, eventually, specific vested interests would be realised. With the entire attention of the global community paid to the emergence of the virus as well as the enormous resources invested in fighting its spread, despite its higher recovery rates and lower mortality rates, this review article recommends moderate, hope giving and more professional media coverage of possible emerging health crises in the future.