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. 2021 Jan 25:5:583680.
doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2020.583680. eCollection 2020.

War Metaphors in Political Communication on Covid-19

Eunice Castro Seixas  1
Affiliations

War Metaphors in Political Communication on Covid-19

Eunice Castro Seixas. Front Sociol. .

Abstract

Although militaristic metaphors have been pervasive during health crisis in political and science communication, few works have examined how these linguistic devices may influence crisis communication. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and on crisis communication literature, I show how political representatives have used the war metaphor for very different purposes in terms of crisis communication and management of the current Covid-19 pandemic. I suggest that these findings challenge previous criticisms of the war metaphor as inherently negative and damaging. Finally, I discuss possibilities of using CDA, and specifically, metaphor analysis to inform and expand crisis communication.

Keywords: COVID-19; crisis communication; critical discourse analysis; political communication; war metaphors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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