The Social Construction of SARS
Studies of a health communication crisis
Editors
| Hong Kong Baptist University
| Hong Kong Baptist University
When the SARS virus began its spread from southern China around the world in spring 2003, it caught regional and international health officials by surprise. The SARS epidemic itself lasted for only a few months, whereas its treatment, in communicative terms, keeps providing us with important lessons that can prepare us all for the much larger pandemic that many are predicting will eventually occur. While the medical aspects of SARS are now relatively well understood, the discursive rhetorical dimensions are much less so.
As an international epidemic, SARS arrived in a number of distinctive societies with the result that different communities handled the crisis in different ways, some far more effectively than others. Accordingly, the 12 chapters in The Social Construction of SARS are studies of how a major health-related crisis was understood and dealt with from a communicative perspective in such diverse places as Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Canada and the United States during the SARS outbreak.
As an international epidemic, SARS arrived in a number of distinctive societies with the result that different communities handled the crisis in different ways, some far more effectively than others. Accordingly, the 12 chapters in The Social Construction of SARS are studies of how a major health-related crisis was understood and dealt with from a communicative perspective in such diverse places as Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Canada and the United States during the SARS outbreak.
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 30] 2008. vi, 242 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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IntroductionJohn H. Powers | pp. 1–13
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Part I. Constructions of SARS in Hong Kong
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1. Hong Kong's multiple constructions of SARSJohn H. Powers and Gwendolyn Gong | pp. 17–31
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2. A hero story without heroes: The Hong Kong government's narratives on SARSXiaosui Xiao | pp. 33–52
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3. "SARS" versus "atypical pneumonia": Inconsistencies in Hong Kong's public health warnings and disease-prevention campaignGwendolyn Gong and Sam Dragga | pp. 53–68
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4. Internet press freedom and online crisis reporting: The role of news web sites in the SARS epidemicAlice Y.L. Lee | pp. 69–90
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Part II. Constructions of SARS on the Chinese mainland
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5. Party journalism vs. market journalism: The coverage of SARS by the People's Daily and Beijing Youth NewsHuang Xiaoyan and Hao Xiaoming | pp. 93–107
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6. Construction of nationalism and political legitimacy through rhetoric of the anti-SARS campaign: A fantasy theme analysisXing Lu | pp. 109–124
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7. SARS discourse as an anti-SARS ideology: The case of BeijingHailong Tian | pp. 125–142
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Part III. Constructions of SARS in Singapore and Taiwan
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8. "Triumph over adversity": Singapore mobilizes Confucian values to combat SARSIan Weber, Tan Howe Yang and Law Loo Shien | pp. 145–162
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9. Singapore at war: SARS and its metaphorsChris Hudson | pp. 163–179
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10. Reporting an emerging epidemic in Taiwan: Journalists' experiences of SARS coverageMei-Ling Hsu | pp. 181–199
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Part IV. Cross national constructions of SARS
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11. Newspaper coverage of the 2003 SARS outbreakJ. Brian Houston, Wen-Yu Chao and Sandra Ragan | pp. 203–221
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12. Effects of rationality and story attributes on perceptions of SARS perceptionShuhua Zhou, Chia-Hsin Pan and Xin Zhong | pp. 223–240
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Index | pp. 241–242
“The volume is indeed a multidisciplinary and multi-perspective examination of the multiple constructions of SARS in varied sociocultural contexts. A thorough and careful reading is recommended. What the reader can get from it is not only a comprehensive understanding as to how a health crisis is at the same time a communication crisis, but also insightful lessons to better tackle human crises with special regard to discourse and communication.”
Hou-Song, Nanchang Hangkong University, China, in Discourse Studies, Vol. 12(1), 2010
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Subjects & Metadata
Communication Studies
BIC Subject: CFG – Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General