Thesis (MA) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research Communication and Media Studies Department

Includes bibliography (sheets 103-130)

ABSTRACT
Since last December 2019, the whole world has been facing a terrible pandemic due to the Coronavirus commonly named Covid-19. This infectious sickness has killed hundreds of thousands of people all around the world. The apparition of this fatal illness has shaken the human life and brought serious social, economic, financial and political problems. As in every situation of crisis, people rely on media to get informed about what is going on, and consequently, they expect to get updated about the evolution of the pandemic by receiving accurate information from political authorities through media; they wish to get more educative information from media institutions knowing that one of the role of media is to educate, sensitize and raise people’s awareness in order to prevent the rapid spread of a virus.
The aim of the study is to analyze ACP, Actualite.cd and Le Phare newspapers by describing how their discourses dealt with news related to the Covid-19 pandemic during the first three months along with the political forces to understand how they responded to the political dimension of the pandemic and how responsible they have been towards citizen in managing this health crisis. To achieve this aim the study relied on a descriptive analysis of articles using a research drawn by Teun A. van Dijk which allowed to analyze words and context in the newspapers’ articles. The propaganda theory allowed to surround the political dimension of this pandemic and understand the place and the role of media in front of political forces while the social responsibility theory of the press sustained the understanding of the duty of the media during a health crisis.
The findings revealed that the pandemic was highly politicized due the high coverage of political news during the lockdown and, this brought people no to trust in the media and not to give higher attention to the disease. Newspapers attributed much attention to politics instead of the well-being of citizens. The coverage of informative and educative news for the benefit of citizens was not enough either to satisfy the unawareness of vulnerable citizens.