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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 14:4 (2023) ► pp.611–637

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Where there is panic, the media are close by

A pragmatic study of the alleviation of COVID-19 panic by the Chinese state media

ORCiD logo with link | Tongji University
ORCiD logo with link | Harbin Engineering University
ORCiD logo with link | Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Published online: 23 May 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.20078.jia
Abstract
The widespread panic associated with media exposure is a serious challenge to worldwide governments in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, alleviating negative social emotions, particularly panic, is an urgent issue for the state media. By using the comments of a Weibo post from The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League, drawing on the notion of extrinsic emotion regulation, this paper conducts a detailed analysis of negative emotions regulation through discourse strategies by the Chinese state media and their effects in the context of COVID-19. The results demonstrate that, by exploiting language strategies, the state media can arouse positive emotions amongst users, thus distract the public from experiencing negative emotions. In addition, the state media participate in online interactions, thereby creating positive public emotional spaces. This study indicates that digital platforms like Weibo, occasionally equipped with emotionalized narrative, are of significant value in the regulation of negative emotions in public crisis contexts.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1The role played by the media and discourse in the alleviation of negative emotions
    • 2.2Media exposure and public panic during the COVID-19 crisis
  • 3.Theoretical framework
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Data collection
    • 4.2Data analysis
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1The discourse strategies used in the panic alleviation discourse of the Chinese state media
    • 5.2The effect of panic alleviation by the Chinese state media
      • 5.2.1A one-way report of users’ emotions
      • 5.2.2An interactive analysis of the users’ emotions
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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