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In:Framing in Interaction: Pragmatic approaches to framing analysis
Edited by Simon Borchmann, Anne H. Fabricius and Ida Klitgård
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 354] 2025
► pp. 99–124

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Chapter 4
Figurative framing in political interaction

War metaphor scenarios in Covid-19 debates, and their integration into conspiracy theories

 | University of East Anglia
Published online: 30 October 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.354.04mus
Abstract
Framing has become a buzzword in media on public debates about COVID-19. Some journalists use it as a reference to ideological biases; others cite cognitive theories of framing, especially G. Lakoff’s cognitive approach to “Conceptual Metaphor Theory” (CMT). This chapter studies war-metaphor framing in public discourses about COVID-19 in the US, Britain and Germany during 2020–2022. The comparative analysis of a corpus of media language in these countries demonstrates that the pragmatic framing effects of war-metaphors have changed over time and across political cultures. This finding suggests that a solely CMT-based notion of framing is insufficient to capture its diachronic and culture-specific variation and needs to be complemented by a pragmatic analysis to capture these aspects.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology and data
  • 3.War framing in British, US and German COVID-19 debates
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion: Research perspectives
  • Notes
  • References
References (137)
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Mortensen, Sune Sønderberg & Trine Lizette Djurhuus Glud
2025. Framing agency, identity and credibility in court. In Framing in Interaction [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 354], ► pp. 179 ff. DOI logo

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