The Covid-19’s metaphors and fear of foreigners on Facebook Brazil

Authors

  • Marcela Tessarolo Bastos UFMG
  • Joana Ziller Josephson Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG)
  • Fábio Luiz Malini de Lima Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES)

Abstract

This article aims to map the illness metaphors (Sontag, 1988) that arise during the onset of an illness, based on the actors and narratives that circulated most during the outbreak of Covid-19 in Brazil. To achieve this, we collected the words “China” and “Wuhan” using the CrowdTangle tool from public pages on Facebook from January 20 to 29, 2020, the period of the disease’s outbreak backlash in Brazil, which had its first cases emerge in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. We started with a bibliographical review on fear, common affect in the emergence of other illness. In the empirical part, we found that the illness metaphor (Sontag, 1988) that emerged in January 2020 were narratives that pointed to the emergence of a mysterious virus, the “Chinese virus”, which could be correlated to the country’s strange eating habits. Thus, previously existing anti-China sentiment was heightened in the platform society (Van Dijck, Poell, Waal) in the first month of the spread of Covid-19 in the world and was fomented by the press, the main actor in the period.

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Author Biographies

Marcela Tessarolo Bastos, UFMG

Adjunct professor at Vila Velha University (UVV). PhD in Social Communication, at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and master in Communication and Terriorialities, at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES).

Joana Ziller Josephson, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG)

Associate Professor of the Department of Social Communication and Permanent of the Postgraduate Program in Social Communication, at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). PhD and master in Information Sciences (UFMG).

Fábio Luiz Malini de Lima, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES)

Associate Professor IV at the Department of Social Communication at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), where he coordinates LABIC (Laboratory for Research on Image and Cyberculture), in Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil. He has a doctorate in Communication from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a master's degree in Information Science (UFRJ).

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Published

2024-10-10

How to Cite

Tessarolo Bastos, M., Ziller Josephson, J., & Malini de Lima, F. L. (2024). The Covid-19’s metaphors and fear of foreigners on Facebook Brazil. PRISMA.COM, (50), 43–63. Retrieved from https://ojstest.xyz/ojsletrasX/index.php/prismacom/article/view/13952

Issue

No. 50 (2024)

Section

Articles

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