Representations of COVID-19 in Chinese Media: An Analysis of Metaphors and Framing Results

Representations of COVID-19 in Chinese Media

Abstract

Emerging infectious diseases represent a crucial intersection within the sociology of health and illness, illuminating the social construction of risk and collective responses during global public health crises. The 2020 emergence of COVID-19 as an unprecedented global emergency garnered extensive media attention, making it a pivotal case for examining how media discourse shapes social realities. This study investigates how China's dominant media outlets, Xinwen Lianbo and China Daily, constructed social representations of COVID-19 through metaphorical and literal frames. We explore how these mediated representations, in turn, influenced public perceptions, social mobilization, and governmental policies. Through a qualitative content analysis of news reports published between January 20 and March 17, 2020, we identified the dominant framing strategies employed by these outlets. Our findings reveal the widespread use of war and race metaphors, alongside literal frames emphasizing collaboration and responsibility, across both media sources. Notably, Xinwen Lianbo, geared towards domestic audiences, also deployed culturally specific chess and boxing metaphors to foster internal cohesion and action. In contrast, targeting international readers, China Daily relied on storm and fire metaphors to convey urgency and unpredictability to a global audience. While both outlets aimed to enhance public understanding of the epidemic, their distinct framing approaches appear to have had divergent sociological impacts. The representations in Xinwen Lianbo effectively fostered a sense of urgency and successfully mobilized domestic responses, demonstrating the media's power in shaping collective behavior within a specific national context. Conversely, the framing in China Daily proved less effective in prompting global cooperation, suggesting a potential disconnect in the cross-cultural reception of health crisis narratives. This study posits that these differing effects are rooted in “deep frames”—the underlying cultural beliefs, social values, and institutional logics that profoundly influence how surface frames are interpreted and acted upon within distinct sociocultural contexts. Our findings contribute to a broader understanding of how media discourse, as a powerful social institution, influences public perception, social trust, and collective action during health crises, underscoring the importance of examining these dynamics within specific sociocultural contexts.