The project titled ‘The Discursive Construction of Coronaphobia in the Turkish Media,’ supported within the scope of TÜBİTAK 1002 Rapid Support Program (220K278), in which our Linguistics Department faculty member Dr. Oktay ÇINAR participated as a researcher, has been completed.
Given that COVID-19 is a globally experienced pandemic, the project argues that precautions, treatments, and societal reactions to the disease have become more strongly integrated into daily practices over time. It was stated that individuals’ concerns from their lives have become more comprehensible in society.
In this context, the project focused on the discursive construction of coronaphobia, investigating how the coronavirus disease is labeled, characterized, contested, evaluated from different perspectives, positioned, and how these evaluations are intensified. Traditional media sources such as newspapers and television, as well as new media platforms like Twitter, were examined to shed light on the discourse surrounding coronaviruses.
In conclusion, the study observed that the linguistic elements associated with the coronavirus disease often carry negative connotations or enable negative associations. It was also noted that negative characterizations of the disease and its unfavorable attributes trigger coronaphobia.
In this study, which is pioneering in many respects, it was stated that intensified discourses of negativity towards the disease as a social problem create a culture of fear and negatively affect psychological well-being and public health.