How Global Media Covers the Coronavirus
For weeks, the coronavirus has been covered by news outlets around the world. Television channels have
been flooded with information about the outbreak that originated in China with live updates. The
media has diligently reported on the number of deaths, infected patients as well as possible causes of the
virus.
But media analysts also say the coverage has been uneven around the world, including in the United
States, and has included sensational aspects.
"Attention to how media messages address the virus, its transmission and risk varied signicantly across
types of coverage and by the nation that produces it," says Katie Foss, professor of media studies at the
School of Journalism and Strategic Media at Middle Tennessee State University. "U.S. coverage has been
inflammatory, particularly across social media and other unsubstantiated sources, which are unfortunately often taken as fact."
In other parts of the world, the media exploited the unusual origin of the virus that jumped from animals to
people. When scientists revealed that the likely source of the coronavirus are bats, a British tabloid, the
Daily Mail, published a story of a Chinese woman eating one such mammal.
"Footage purporting to show a Chinese woman eating a whole bat at a fancy restaurant has gone viral as
the country is ravaged by a new deadly virus believed to have come from the ying mammals," the Daily
Mail wrote. In France, newspaper Le Courrier picard published on its Jan. 26 cover a story on the coronavirus outbreak
with the headline "The Yellow Peril". The media outlet, as well as its coverage, has been highly criticized
on Twitter for "uninhibited racism" and its headline having crossed "a line." French Asians have taken to
social media to express their anger and created the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus (#IAmNotAVirus). Le
Courrier picard later apologized in a note, saying the piece was meant to be an op-ed whose headline also
carried a question mark.
"We apologize to anyone who may have been sincerely shocked," the newspaper said. "We will be twice as
careful in the future."
In Germany, Der Spiegel, a popular center-left German weekly magazine, faced similar criticism after publishing a cover on the coronavirus outbreak presenting an Asian man wearing a protective suit and a mask,
and looking at his phone. The headline read "Made in China. When globalization becomes a deadline
danger."
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