Moral panic about "covidiots" in Canadian newspaper coverage of COVID-19.

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  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: Public Library of Science Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101285081 Publication Model: eCollection Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1932-6203 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19326203 NLM ISO Abbreviation: PLoS One Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Original Publication: San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science
    • Subject Terms:
      Mass Media* ; Panic* ; SARS-CoV-2*; COVID-19/*epidemiology ; COVID-19/*psychology; COVID-19/prevention & control ; Canada/epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Newspapers as Topic
    • Abstract:
      Moral panics are moments of intense and widespread public concern about a specific group, whose behaviour is deemed a moral threat to the collective. We examined public health guidelines in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canadian newspaper editorials, columns and letters to the editor, to evaluate how perceived threats to public interests were expressed and amplified through claims-making processes. Normalization of infection control behaviours has led to a moral panic about lack of compliance with preventive measures, which is expressed in opinion discourse. Following public health guidelines was construed as a moral imperative and a civic duty, while those who failed to comply with these guidelines were stigmatized, shamed as "covidiots," and discursively constructed as a threat to public health and moral order. Unlike other moral panics in which there is social consensus about what needs to be done, Canadian commentators presented a variety of possible solutions, opening a debate around infection surveillance, privacy, trust, and punishment. Public health communication messaging needs to be clear, to both facilitate compliance and provide the material conditions necessary to promote infection prevention behaviour, and reduce the stigmatization of certain groups and hostile reactions towards them.
      Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20220118 Date Completed: 20220124 Latest Revision: 20231103
    • Publication Date:
      20231103
    • Accession Number:
      PMC8765660
    • Accession Number:
      10.1371/journal.pone.0261942
    • Accession Number:
      35041667