COVID Communication

Douglas A. Vakoch (PhD, MA, Stony Brook University; MA, University of Notre Dame; BA, Carleton College) is President of METI International and Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He has edited or co-edited more than twenty books covering COVID-19, communication, psychology, sustainability, and the search for life beyond Earth, including COVID-19 in International Media: Global Pandemic Perspectives (Routledge, 2022), Eco-Anxiety and Planetary Hope: Experiencing the Twin Disasters of COVID-19 and Climate Change (Springer, 2022), and Eco-Anxiety and Pandemic Distress: Psychological Perspectives on Resilience and Interconnectedness (Oxford University Press, 2023). His work has been featured in such publications as The New York Times, The Economist, Nature, and Science, and he has been interviewed for numerous radio and television programs, including those broadcast on theBBC, PBS, Netflix, and Bilibili.

John C. Pollock (PhD, Stanford; MPA, Maxwell School, Syracuse; BA, Swarthmore), is Professor, depts. of Communication Studies and Public Health, The College of New Jersey. Authored or edited books include Tilted Mirrors: Media Alignment with Political and Social Change - A Community Structure Approach (2007); Media and Social Inequality: Innovations in Community Structure Research (2013); Journalism and Human Rights: How Demographics Drive Media Coverage (2015); (with Mort Winston), Making Human Rights News: Balancing Participation and Professionalism (2017); and (with Douglas A. Vakoch), COVID-19 in International Media: Global Pandemic Perspectives (Routledge (2021) . Serving on several editorial boards, including Journal of Health Communication, Communication Theory, and Mass Communication and Society, Pollock has written articles for numerous scholarly and non-scholarly outlets, including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Health Communication, Mass Communication and Society, Journal of Human Rights, Human Rights Review, Society, The Nation, and The New York Times. Former president of a leading public relations firm's public opinion research subsidiary, Pollock won a Silver Anvil, "Oscar" of the Public Relations Society of America. With grants from the Social Science Research Council, National Cancer Institute, United Nations Foundation, and Senior Fulbright Scholar (Argentina, 2010), Pollock advances community structure theory, exploring the impact of society on media.

Amanda M. Caleb (PhD, MA, The University of Sheffield; MPH, The University of Alabama at Birmingham; BA, Davidson College) is Professor of Medical Humanities, having previously served as founding director and Professor of Medical and Health Humanities and Professor of English at Misericordia University. Her research interests include the medical and public health humanities, health communication, health narratology, narrative medicine, and bioethics and the Holocaust. Dr. Caleb has published articles and book chapters on topics ranging from the medicalization of social policies to the marginalization of people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic to dementia and the role of narrative medicine. She is a member of the Health Humanities Consortium Steering Committee (membership chair), a member of the executive committee of the Medical Humanities and Health Studies forum of the Modern Language Association, and a member of the steering committee for the Department of Bioethics and the Holocaust, International Chair of Bioethics (World Medical Association Cooperation Centre). Dr. Caleb was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to revise Misericordia University's Medical and Health Humanities curriculum; as part of second NEH

Introduction.- Part I. Political and Media Discourses: Pandemic Constructions.- The Rhetoric of Pandemics: Health, Politics, and the Public.- Rhetorical Lenses of COVID-19: Comparing U.S. News and Social Media Responses to National Events Since 9/11.- COVID-19 as Metaphor: Fighting the Virus of Racism, Becoming the Vaccine.- Tweeting the Pandemic Away: A Look at How Academics, Activists, Politicians, and the Media Interact with the Public on Twitter.- Textual Analysis of Cartoons on Nigerian Politicians' Reactions to COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Media Platforms.- Part II. Visual Discourse: Pandemic Information Distribution.- The Rhetoric of Visual Representations: Visualizing the COVID-19 Pandemic in Polish Media.- Countering the Infodemic through Comics: COVID-19 and Graphic Medicine.- This Is What Pandemic Looks Like: Visual Framing of COVID-19 on Search Engines.- Advertising in the Time of COVID-19: A Thematic and Social Engagement Analysis of Branded Wins and Misses.- Part III.Discourses of Inclusions/Exclusion: Pandemic Communities.- Self-Isolation and Consubstantiality: COVID-19 Terminology and Collective Identity.- Personifying Coronavirus through Social Media.- Stay At Home And Stay Safe: Social Distancing as Border Performance.- Social Distancing from COVID-19 by Buying Toilet Paper: Critiquing "Self-Protective" Consumerism through Memes.- Unmasking the Pandemic: Self, Other, and the Mask as a Visual Signifier of COVID-19.- Going Corona-Viral with a Bilateral Phenomenon of Laughter: Othering and Prejudice in Memes Depicting Reactions to COVID-19.- Part IV. Discourses of Dissent: Pandemic Reactions to Misinformation.- Varieties of Church Pandemic Literacy during the 1918 and 2020 Epidemics.- "Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make": Memes and The Social Media Critique by the UK Public in Response to COVID-19.- Don't Hold your Breath: Motives and Anxiety in Facebook COVID-19 Viral Shares.- Idols of COVID-19: Francis Bacon and thePandemic of 2020.- The Epic Spectator Meets the War on the Coronavirus.- Index.