This volume investigates mediated lives and media narratives during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Asia as a focus point. It shows how the pandemic has created an unprecedented situation in this globalized world marked by many disruptions in the social, economic, political, and cultural lives of individuals and communities— creating a ‘new normal’. It explores the different media vocabularies of fear, panic, social distancing, and contagion from across Asian nations. It focuses on the role media played as most nations faced lockdowns and unique challenges during the crisis. From healthcare workers to sex workers, from racism to nationalism, from the plight of migrant workers in news reporting to state propaganda, this book brings critical questions confronting media professionals into focus.
The volume is of critical interest to scholars and researchers of media and communication studies, politics, especially political communication, social and public policy, and Asian studies.
This volume investigates mediated lives and media narratives during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on Asia. It shows how the pandemic has created an unprecedented situation in this globalized world marked by many disruptions in the social, economic, political and cultural lives of individuals and communities — creating a ‘new normal’.
List of Illustrations
Contributors
Introduction
Shubhda Arora and Keval J. Kumar
Part I
Missing and Marginalized Narratives
1 Unrest in the Comments: Voicing the Discontent of Japans Foreign Residents
in the Comments Sections of Japan Today
Christopher J. Hayes
2 Gender, Media and the Covid-19 Pandemic: An Investigation into Missing
Gendered Narratives in Indian News Media
Shipra Raj
3 The Mask Dilemma: Hierarchy between Two Know-Hows in Chinese-Language Media
of Canada
Grace Cheng-Ying Lin
4 Missing Media Narratives: Covids Impact on Transgender Population in India
Shubhda Chaudhary
Part II
Media Memory and Narratives
5 Masked Presence: Covid-19 and Remembering SARS in Taiwan
Jacob F. Tischer
6 Familial Halcyon: Narratives of Nostalgia in the Lockdown
Azania Imtiaz Patel
Part III
Media Bias and Propaganda
7 Taiwan Can Help: Covid-19, the Model Minority State, and the Limits of
Taiwan-as-Beacon Rhetoric
Jamin D. Shih
8 The Myths of Hate: Digital Deception in the (Communal) Times of Covid-19
Saesha Kini and G. Gyanesh
9 Risk Communication versus Risks in Communication: Efforts of Vietnam
Government in Controlling Messages during Covid-19 Pandemic
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen and Nguyen Thanh Mai
10 Modern Hua Mulans in Global Chinese-Speaking Media: Female Frontline
Workers as Tools of Propaganda during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Ashley Liu and Shuyue Yang
Part IV
Mainstream and Alternative Narratives
11 Confronting Anti-Asian Bias in the Classroom: Reflections on the
Importance of Asian and Asian American Studies in the Wake of Covid-19
Meghan Cai and Kimberly D. McKee
12 From a Story of Disaster to a Story of Victory: Chinese Media Reports in
the Covid-19 Crisis
Runya Qiaoan and Beatrice Gallelli
13 The Covid-19 Pandemic: News Reporting in Malaysia
Normahfuzah Ahmad, Awan Ismail and Norsiah Abdul Hamid
Part V
Narratives of Othering
14 Viral Vilification
Gita V. Pai
15 Pandemics, Politics and Religious Others: Exploring Media Narratives
during Covid-19 in India and Pakistan
Laraib Niaz
Part VI
Social Media Narratives
16 Social Media and Vietnamese Undocumented Workers in Thailand during the
Covid-19 Pandemic
Anthony Le Duc
17 Representations of Covid-19 in West Asia: A Case Study of Islamic Republic
News Agencys (IRNA) Instagram Account
Hamideh Molaei and Maziar Mozaffari Falarti
18 Dont Panic! Reach Us: Indian Tech Unions Social Media Narratives during
the Pandemic
Rianka Roy
Shubhda Arora is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India. She is a media sociologist with research interests in Gender, Environmental and Disaster Communication. She has authored research papers and book chapters exploring ideas of Vulnerability and Social Inequality.
Keval J. Kumar is an Adjunct Professor at MICA, India. Earlier, he was a Reader at Pune University and Director of SIMC. He is the author of Mass Communication in India (5th Edition), Media Education, Communication and Public Policy, and has contributed to the International Encyclopaedia of Media Literacy and The Handbook of Media Education Research.
