The construction of metaphors and adjectivations about disease in the press: the case of the dengue epidemic in Cordoba during April 2009

Abstract

During April 2009, the phenomenon of dengue emerged in the city of Cordoba (Argentina). It was in this period that the first wave of autochthonous cases was triggered. Sociologically, it is interesting to investigate the various meanings that circulated around the disease, as they signal the marks that were given at the beginning of the epidemic. The objective of this study was to examine the media construction made by the newspaper "La Voz del Interior" (digital version) on three topics in particular: dengue, the ones affected by the disease and the role of the State, in the city of Cordoba and in the above-mentioned period. As for the methodology, we analyzed the news related to dengue, with the aim of identifying the media construction of the daily newspaper regarding the three mentioned topics. Descriptive categories were generated through the "constant comparative method" (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). In summary, the findings indicated that the disease was understood as: a) "guerrilla" enemy, b) error or surprise, c) risk re-distributor. Secondly, the Role of the State was seen as an "active" State (positive) or as an "inactive" (negative) one, differing in its three orbits (Municipal, Provincial and National). The potentially affected people were categorized as: a) responsible, b) victims of the State c) cautious-ignorant. There was also a phenomenon of invisibilisation of dengue by the "Influenza A (H1N1) effect" from April 28, 2009, onwards. Finally, new questions emerged to be investigated in future research.