Analyzing War Metaphors in the Context of the COVID-19: A Critical Metaphor Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1506.21Keywords:
Critical Metaphor Analysis, conceptual metaphor, global health crisis, novel coronavirusAbstract
The emergence of the coronavirus, officially known as SARS-CoV-2, posed an immediate threat to national security and public health. Despite initial attempts to downplay its seriousness, the pandemic swiftly induced widespread fear worldwide. President Donald Trump positioned himself as a "wartime president", advocating for a comprehensive campaign and declaring war on SARS-CoV-2. This novel framing was widely embraced by the media to help the public grasp the severity of the virus. Consequently, coverage of COVID-19 proliferated across various media platforms, making it one of the most dominant topics of discussion. This paper applies Critical Metaphor Analysis to examine the utilization of war metaphors in American media discourse during the global health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Focusing on The New York Times' political journalism between June 1 and July 1, 2020, the study scrutinizes twenty news articles to assess the prevalence and implications of war analogies in pandemic coverage. The analysis reveals a diverse and vigorous deployment of such metaphors, highlighting their pervasive influence in framing COVID-19 as a conflict. Additionally, the paper presents a conceptual model of the war metaphor in this context, supported by various mappings of the conceptual metaphor, elucidating the portrayal of COVID-19 as a war-like scenario within the broader global health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus.
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