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Journalistic Denial of Death during the Very First Traumatic Period of the Italian COVID-19 Pandemic

Exactly one year ago, between February and March 2020, the COVID-19 infection went from an epidemic confined to China to a worldwide pandemic that was particularly lethal in Italy. This study examined the media accounts during that period by analysing the representation of death-related constructs i...

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Autores principales: Solomon, Sheldon, Rostellato, Daniele, Testoni, Ines, Calabrese, Fiorella, Biasco, Guido
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8004840/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33806901
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs11030041
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author Solomon, Sheldon
Rostellato, Daniele
Testoni, Ines
Calabrese, Fiorella
Biasco, Guido
author_facet Solomon, Sheldon
Rostellato, Daniele
Testoni, Ines
Calabrese, Fiorella
Biasco, Guido
author_sort Solomon, Sheldon
collection PubMed
description Exactly one year ago, between February and March 2020, the COVID-19 infection went from an epidemic confined to China to a worldwide pandemic that was particularly lethal in Italy. This study examined the media accounts during that period by analysing the representation of death-related constructs in Corriere della Sera, the most widely read newspaper in Italy. A textual and thematic analysis of articles published between period A (epidemic: 23 January–22 February 2020) and period B (pandemic: 23 February–31 March 2020) was conducted using Nvivo-11. A total of 141 articles comprising 48,524 words were collected. The most utilised words and meanings linked to COVID-19 were computed. In the rank distribution, ‘China’ and ’virus’ were the terms most frequently used in both periods. The terms ‘death’ and ‘dead’ were completely absent in period A and appeared in the 535th position in period B. The term ‘dead’ was used primarily to indicate the number of deceased. From a Terror Management Theory perspective, it is possible that the minimal reference to death-related issues was a reflection of death denial and a manifestation of efforts to deny death to manage terror. These findings highlight the ambiguities and ambivalence surrounding any issue pertaining to death; on the one side, undue alarmism may provoke exaggerated reactions, such as moral panic, while on the other denial-based messages that minimise references to mortality may reduce safe behaviour during a pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-80048402021-03-29 Journalistic Denial of Death during the Very First Traumatic Period of the Italian COVID-19 Pandemic Solomon, Sheldon Rostellato, Daniele Testoni, Ines Calabrese, Fiorella Biasco, Guido Behav Sci (Basel) Article Exactly one year ago, between February and March 2020, the COVID-19 infection went from an epidemic confined to China to a worldwide pandemic that was particularly lethal in Italy. This study examined the media accounts during that period by analysing the representation of death-related constructs in Corriere della Sera, the most widely read newspaper in Italy. A textual and thematic analysis of articles published between period A (epidemic: 23 January–22 February 2020) and period B (pandemic: 23 February–31 March 2020) was conducted using Nvivo-11. A total of 141 articles comprising 48,524 words were collected. The most utilised words and meanings linked to COVID-19 were computed. In the rank distribution, ‘China’ and ’virus’ were the terms most frequently used in both periods. The terms ‘death’ and ‘dead’ were completely absent in period A and appeared in the 535th position in period B. The term ‘dead’ was used primarily to indicate the number of deceased. From a Terror Management Theory perspective, it is possible that the minimal reference to death-related issues was a reflection of death denial and a manifestation of efforts to deny death to manage terror. These findings highlight the ambiguities and ambivalence surrounding any issue pertaining to death; on the one side, undue alarmism may provoke exaggerated reactions, such as moral panic, while on the other denial-based messages that minimise references to mortality may reduce safe behaviour during a pandemic. MDPI 2021-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8004840/ /pubmed/33806901 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs11030041 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Solomon, Sheldon
Rostellato, Daniele
Testoni, Ines
Calabrese, Fiorella
Biasco, Guido
Journalistic Denial of Death during the Very First Traumatic Period of the Italian COVID-19 Pandemic
title Journalistic Denial of Death during the Very First Traumatic Period of the Italian COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Journalistic Denial of Death during the Very First Traumatic Period of the Italian COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Journalistic Denial of Death during the Very First Traumatic Period of the Italian COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Journalistic Denial of Death during the Very First Traumatic Period of the Italian COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Journalistic Denial of Death during the Very First Traumatic Period of the Italian COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort journalistic denial of death during the very first traumatic period of the italian covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8004840/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33806901
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs11030041
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