Representations of far-flung illnesses: the case of Ebola in Britain
Representations of far-flung illnesses: the case of Ebola in Britain
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DOI：
10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00068-5
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发表时间：
2002-03-01
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
Haarhoff, G
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Joffe, H;Haarhoff, G
在西方文化中，平信徒面临着大量由大众媒体传播给他们的遥远疾病。一些社会科学家呼吁仔细研究人们对此类事件的思维模式与他们所接触的信息之间的联系。该研究以20世纪90年代中期在非洲爆发的埃博拉病毒为媒介，考察了英国大报及其读者、英国小报及其读者如何理解这种分布广泛的疾病。利用现有的工作在西方的艾滋病毒/艾滋病的早期表现为研究问题提供信息。尤其是。本研究调查了埃博拉是否被认为是一种威胁，媒体和非专业人士对埃博拉的描述是如何互动的，以及在英国是否有不同的共同想法，或者有一个更统一的描述。对48篇大报和小报文章的主题进行分析，并对其读者进行了50次采访，揭示了一个共同的画面，即埃博拉被描述为非洲人，与非洲的做法有关，并被视为对英国构成威胁不大。然而，群体差异是存在的，其特点是小报及其读者对埃博拉病毒的看法更为本质化，而不是关注与埃博拉病毒在大报及其读者中升级有关的结构特征。就媒体与思想的关系而言，除了媒体类型和各自读者的想法之间的相似之处外，还存在某些关键的差异：虽然报纸通过提及埃博拉全球化的潜力以及如何遏制埃博拉，使埃博拉成为“真实的”。外行的思想家们对此感到超然，并将埃博拉病毒与科幻小说进行了类比。这是作为一种象征性的应对读者的一部分，以及在埃博拉病毒的外行代表媒体形象施加的力量方面进行了讨论。(C)2002爱思唯尔科技有限公司。保留所有权利。
In western cultures lay people are faced with a plethora of far-flung illnesses, relayed to them by the mass media. A number of social scientists have called for scrutiny of the link between people's patterns of thinking concerning such events, and the messages to which they are exposed. Using the outbreaks of Ebola in Africa in the mid-1990s as a vehicle, the study examines how British broadsheets and their readers, and British tabloids and their readers, make sense of this far-flung illness. Existing work on early representations of HIV/AIDS in the west is utilised to inform the research questions. In particular. this study investigates whether Ebola is constructed as a threat, how media and lay representations of Ebola interact, and whether there are different pockets of shared thinking, or a more uniform representation, in relation to Ebola in Britain. An analysis of the themes in 48 broadsheet and tabloid articles, and 50 interviews with their readers, reveals a common picture in which Ebola is represented as African, associated with African practices, and seen as posing little threat to Britain. However, group differences exist, and are characterised by a more essentialised vision of Ebola in the tabloids and their readers, in contrast to a focus on structural features linked to Ebola's escalation in the broadsheets and their readers. In terms of the media-mind relationship, beyond the similarities found between media type and their respective readers' ideas, certain key differences exist: While the newspapers make Ebola 'real' by referring to its potential to globalise, as well as to how it can be contained. lay thinkers feel detached from it, and draw an analogy between Ebola and science fiction. This is discussed as a method of symbolic coping on the part of the readers, as well as in terms of the power exerted by media imagery on lay representations of Ebola. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.