Framing COVID-19 Prevention And Control Coverage Visually

In 2020,the novel coronavirus triggered a global public health emergency with a wide range of impacts.In an unprecedented health crisis,visual images played an important role in the media framework as a way for nations to be present and evoke emotions.To make up for scholars’ neglect of visual images and better understand mainstream media’s visual communication practices in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic,this study took the visual texts related to COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control published on the People’s Daily WeChat public account from January 1,2020,to December 31,2022,as the research object.The research aimed to analyze the visual presentation characteristics and discourse methods of People’s Daily in COVID19 epidemic prevention and control through visual framework analysis,and to focus on how mainstream media discourse on the visual level is connected to and produces meaning with institutional discourse such as medicine and science through case analysis.This paper analyzed 886 visual texts that met the criteria using content analysis,specifically using three dimensions of visual framework research:pattern analysis of image cognition dimension,theme analysis of image indication dimension,and discourse analysis of image semantics dimension.The specific arrangement of the paper is as follows:In the introduction,the research background and significance are introduced,and relevant research on "public health emergencies," "frameworks for public health emergencies," and "visual frameworks" is reviewed,and the research questions of this paper are proposed.In Chapter 2,the research ideas and designs are detailed.Firstly,an overview of the research object and data collection method is given.Then,the concept definitions of the content analysis and case analysis methods used are provided.Under the design based on the visual framework,the collected data is divided into three dimensions,and a reliability test is conducted.In Chapter 3,through content analysis of 886 visual texts,this paper outlines a visual communication landscape of People’s Daily on WeChat during the epidemic prevention and control period:(1)temporal level,People’s Daily shifted from all-day posting with pictures in the early stage to stable epidemic prevention and control information publishing in the middle and later stages,with a focus on sudden events and public health policies,undergoing a transition from "war" style reporting to "waremotion" compound style reporting;(2)image cognition dimension,People’s Daily mainly uses photographic images,supplemented by posters,comics,and other forms of visual elements,reflecting its pursuit of news authenticity and timeliness;(3)image indication dimension,People’s Daily is characterized by six dominant frame structures in visual themes,among which the "national anti-epidemic" and "frontline epidemic"frames are the most important,and the distribution of the other frames is relatively even,indicating that it has reported on epidemic prevention and control more comprehensively;(4)image semantics dimension,People’s Daily’s new media communication during the epidemic prevention and control period mainly reflects four frames at the ideological level:socialism,nationalism,a community of shared future for mankind,and healthism.In Chapter 5,the research results of this paper were summarized,and some conclusions,inspirations,research gaps,and future research directions were proposed.The study shows that People’s Daily used a variety of visual expression forms in its reporting on the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic,fully utilizing the role of visual images in information dissemination and emotional communication.In addition,People’s Daily also emphasized the dissemination and guidance of professional institutional discourses such as medicine and science in visual presentation,organically integrating media with institutional discourses to form a powerful discourse productivity.In summary,this paper aims to fill the gap in scholars’ neglect of the role of visual images in public health events by studying the visual communication practices of People’s Daily in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic.The research results of this paper are of great significance for us to better understand the role and responsibilities of the media in public health emergencies,and to improve the media’s visual communication ability and discourse productivity.