'Generic visuals' of Covid-19 in the news: Invoking banal belonging through symbolic reiteration. (July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Aiello, Giorgia; Kennedy, Helen; Anderson, C.W.; Mørk Røstvik, Camilla
• Other Names: Frosh Paul guest-editor.; Georgiou Myria guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: International journal of cultural studies. Volume 25:Number 3/4(2022)
• Page Start: 309
• Page End: 330
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Subjects: banal nationalism -- Covid-19 -- data visualization -- generic visuals -- news media -- symbolic reiteration -- stock photography -- visual communication; Culture -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Periodicals; 306.05
• DOI: 10.1177/13678779211061415
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1367-8779

Abstract

In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, images of the virus molecule and 'flatten-the-curve' line charts were inescapable. There is now a vast visual repertoire of vaccines, people wearing face masks in everyday settings, choropleth maps and both bar and line charts. These 'generic visuals' circulate widely in the news media and, however unremarkable, play an important role in representing the crisis in particular ways. We argue that these generic visuals promote banal nationalism, localism and cosmopolitanism in the face of the crisis, and that they do so through the symbolic reiteration of a range of visual resources across news stories. Through an analysis of three major news outlets in the UK, we examine how generic visuals of Covid-19 contribute to these banal visions and versions of belonging and, in doing so, also to foregrounding the role of the state in responding to the crisis.