The imaginary of SARS-CoV-2 virion in Spain: comparison between the printed press and the television news

Authors

  • Gema Bonales Daimiel Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación Aplicada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España , Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación Aplicada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España
  • Isidro Jiménez Gómez Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación Aplicada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España , Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación Aplicada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España
  • Jaime López Díez Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación Aplicada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España , Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación Aplicada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20318/recs.2020.5457

Keywords:

SARS-CoV-2, television news, press, imaginary, mass media, COVID-19, scientific illustrations, pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: Traditional media in Spain are playing a prominent role in the coverage of the COVID-19 disease. Objective: To study the visual representations of the SARS-Covid-2 virion in television news programs and printed press, the designer’s motivations and their relationship with scientific images of the virion. Methodology: A mixed qualitative-quantitative methodology has been followed, with interviews with experts and a statistical analysis with a Chi-Square test applied to 1,732 pieces of news, extracted from the printed version of 19 Spanish daily newspapers, and 121 images of the virion in 5 television news programs. Results: Scientific illustrations were used in 36.02% of newspaper’s pieces of news, and only in 11.57% of TV news programs images. Conclusions: Newspapers are more faithful to scientific images than TV news. The most used image assets use the most representative virus forms: elongated spicules ending in tentacles, intended for the sensitization of the dangerousness of the virus than to a merely informative objective.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

  • Gema Bonales Daimiel, Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación Aplicada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España, Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación Aplicada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España
    Licenciada en Publicidad y Relaciones Públicas por la UCM. Máster universitario en Gestión Comercial por ESIC y Máster en Dirección de Marketing por la URJC. Es profesora asociada en el Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación Aplicada y miembro del grupo de investigación COMEIN de la UCM.

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2020-07-16

Issue

2020: Suplemento 1

Section

Originals

License

All articles published in this journal –unless otherwise stated- are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerives (CC-BY-ND 3.0 ES) Spain 3.0 License, which allows others to copy, distribute and transmit in a public way as long as they credit the author(s), journal and institution that publish these articles, and provided that they are not altered or modified. The complete license can be consulted in: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/deed/.es

The copyright belongs to the manuscript’s author just on the basis of creating this work:

  • Moral rights are undeniable and inalienable.
  • Economic or exploitation rights can be transferred to third parties, as it occurs  when articles are published and authors partially or totally transfer their exploitation rights to publishers

Authors can archive their own articles in an institutional repository as long as their publications are cited in this journal.

How to Cite

The imaginary of SARS-CoV-2 virion in Spain: comparison between the printed press and the television news. (2020). Revista Española De Comunicación En Salud , 158-170. https://doi.org/10.20318/recs.2020.5457