Mythologizing the face mask : How protective covers became political during the fine-dust and COVID-19 crises in South Korea

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F21%3A00123450" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/21:00123450 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/mcp/2021/00000017/00000002/art00001" target="_blank" >https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/mcp/2021/00000017/00000002/art00001</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/macp_00044_1" target="_blank" >10.1386/macp_00044_1</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Mythologizing the face mask : How protective covers became political during the fine-dust and COVID-19 crises in South Korea

Original language description

This study aimed to demonstrate how South Korean news media routinized and sensationalized the face mask amid two recent public health crises: the fine-dust crisis and the COVID-19 epidemic. News media appropriated the mythologized meaning of the face mask as a symbol of individual safety during the two crises. This study analyses news articles to answer three questions: (1) How was wearing the face mask mythologized as a routinized practice in days of uncertain risk? (2) How was the face mask politicized as a mythologized sign indicating China as an external threat? and (3) How was the face mask politicized as a symbolic code of the government’s responsibility for the crisis? Once signified as the primary means of individual protection in the context of Korean risk society, the face mask became politicized amid the shortage of the face mask. Placed in the context of the recent disastrous crises in Korea, China was identified as the culprit not only in the epidemic but also in the shortage of the face mask. The meaning of China as an external threat was continuously strengthened when the South Korean government opted out of the entry ban on Chinese citizens. The last analytic part presents how news media politicized the epidemic by associating the face mask crisis with the Korean government.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_SC - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50802 - Media and socio-cultural communication

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics

ISSN

1740-8296

e-ISSN

2040-0918

Volume of the periodical

17

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

21

Pages from-to

97-117

UT code for WoS article

000740693700001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85123351065