Pandemic Stories: Rhetorical Motifs in Journalists' Coverage of Biomedical Risk.

IF 3.2 2区 哲学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Minerva Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Epub Date: 2019-07-24 DOI:10.1007/s11024-019-09383-4
Tess Laidlaw
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引用次数: 7

Abstract

This paper argues that journalists' discursive actions in an outbreak context manifest in identifiable rhetorical motifs, which in turn influence the delivery of biomedical information by the media in such a context. Via a critical approach grounded in rhetorical theory, I identified three distinct rhetorical motifs influencing the reportage of health information in the early days of the H1N1 outbreak. A public-health motif was exhibited in texts featuring a particular health official and offering the statements of such an official as a mechanism of reassurance. A concealment-of-information motif was exhibited in texts emphasizing the importance of the transparency of health officials, and in texts demonstrating ambivalence about information provided by socially-sanctioned sources. Finally, in texts mythologizing the outbreak to the exclusion of other functions of the text (e.g., conveying who is at risk, protective behaviours, symptoms), I identified a pandemic motif. Each motif differs in the conclusions it offers to audiences seeking to gauge relative levels of risk, and to receive information about protective behaviours. I suggest that one means of interpreting the manifestation of distinct rhetorical motifs in the context of a high-risk health threat is the certainty that this context alters moral responsibilities, consequently influencing the manifestation of narrative role.

流行病故事:记者报道生物医学风险的修辞母题。
本文认为,记者在疫情背景下的话语行为表现为可识别的修辞母旨,这反过来影响了媒体在这种背景下对生物医学信息的传递。通过一种以修辞理论为基础的批判性方法,我确定了甲型H1N1流感爆发初期影响卫生信息报道的三种不同的修辞母旨。公共卫生主题在以特定卫生官员为主题的文本中得到展示,并提供该官员的声明作为一种保证机制。在强调卫生官员透明度的重要性的文本中,以及在对社会认可的来源提供的信息表现出矛盾态度的文本中,都表现出隐瞒信息的主题。最后,在将疫情神话化的文本中,排除了文本的其他功能(例如,传达谁处于危险之中,保护性行为,症状),我确定了一个大流行主题。每个主题在向寻求评估相对风险水平和获取有关保护行为信息的受众提供的结论方面各不相同。我认为,在高风险健康威胁的背景下,解释不同修辞母题表现的一种方法是,这种背景肯定会改变道德责任,从而影响叙事作用的表现。
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来源期刊
Minerva
Minerva Multiple-
CiteScore
5.20
自引率
4.30%
发文量
26
期刊介绍: Minerva is devoted to the study of ideas, traditions, cultures and institutions in science, higher education and research. It is concerned no less with history than with present practice, and with the local as well as the global. It speaks to the scholar, the teacher, the policy-maker and the administrator. It features articles, essay reviews and ''special'' issues on themes of topical importance. It represents no single school of thought, but welcomes diversity, within the rules of rational discourse. Its contributions are peer-reviewed. Its audience is world-wide.
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