Deadly serious: Pandemic humour, media and critical perspectives. (1st June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bernal, Victoria
• Is Part Of: Journal of African media studies. Volume 14:Number 2(2022)
• Page Start: 183
• Page End: 187
• Publication Date: 2022-06-01
• Subjects: Mass media -- Africa -- Periodicals; Communication -- Africa -- Periodicals; Africa -- Social life and customs -- Periodicals; 302.23096
• DOI: 10.1386/jams_00072_2
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-199X

Abstract

COVID-19 is the most mediated pandemic in history thus far. COVID-19 humour, much of it circulated online, is a global phenomenon, but it takes different forms in different settings. This Special Issue brings together articles that add to our understanding of how Africans have experienced corona pandemic conditions, as well as contributing to the scholarship on media in African contexts, while focusing on humour. I suggest that we understand humorous responses to the COVID-19 crisis as discourses on contemporary conditions, and a means of highlighting the ongoing crises that precede the pandemic and contribute to the impact of the virus. In that sense, humour can be quite serious.