Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Report on Narratives and Urban Myths
oct 1 2012
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report on ‘Urban Myths and Narratives’ takes many different directions in the investigation ofnarratives and urban myths surrounding epidemics and vaccination, so that a comprehensive framework isset to explain and better understand the public perceptions that underlie infectious disease outbreaks.
Section 1 makes some preliminary remarks and outlines the principal objectives. The report continues to provide the theoretical context behind urban myths, contemporary legends,rumours and other forms of folk narratives, as regards their qualitative elements, purpose and importanceof those narratives for the community and the individual alike.
In particular, Section 2 of the report discusses the significance of myths and legends for humans, in helping them to understand and conceptualise the complexities of the world. Extensive reference is made to the urban myths and legends, concerning the ways in which those survive in time, how they become generated and then diffused to the public. We provide detailed descriptions of the characteristics of urban myths and legends, so that these notions and terms are clearly established for the reader. This section concludes with the identification of the psychosocial functions of urban myths and legends.
In addition to the aforementioned theoretical context built around the functions of the folk narrative, in Section 3 we explore theories of narrative discourse and rhetoric devices, that are most relevant to communication strategies and tactics employed by various actors (e.g. government officials, healthcare professionals, public etc.) during the outbreak of an infectious disease. The extensive analysis of discourse narrative and modes of persuasion and engagement, aims at creating yet another framework where the impact of the various linguistic tools used in communicating messages and symbols could be assessed. The main rhetorical tropes are also presented, namely metaphor, synecdoche, metonymy and irony, which make frequent appearance in the communication during epidemics.
In Section 4, we explore major pandemics in older history, namely the Black Death, the Smallpox pandemic and the 1918 influenza pandemic, highlighting popular conceptions and myths generated at the time, in order to identify recurring patterns of urban myths that still exist in our days. This retrospective approach has also been useful in understanding the societal dynamics that allow myths and legends to be incubated and sustained in collective memory for people.
The description of infectious disease outbreaks continues in Section 5, where the major epidemics in the 21st century are presented. This section is distinct from the previous one, as the impact, spread and communication of infectious diseases is explored under the lens of globalisation, which characterises our present. For each major epidemic, there are detailed accounts of the associated myths and conspiracy theories that emerged during the time, making some preliminary connections with the anti‐vaccination movement, which has seen a considerable growth within the last few years, in connection with the development of the internet and Web 2.0. This section also draws from studies on the media discourse and conceptual metaphors that had been used during the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, SARS and H5N1 influenza. Finally, following a thorough research, this section summarises and lists all the urban myths that appeared during the 2009 (H1N1) pandemic as regards the outbreak itself, as well as the preventive measures suggested by the officials. Findings suggest that many of the urban myths associated with the most recent pandemic, had also been projected in previous disease outbreaks.
Section 6 places under the microscope the anti‐vaccination movement, and different strategies that are used to influence perceptions and behaviour of the general public in their final decisions. The discourse is also presented for this group, along with information about the channels of communication that are used to diffuse their messages. This section closes with a small‐scale research study across four different countries, where the aim was to explore the type of information that a person can be presented with, as a first attempt to retrieve some details about an infectious disease outbreak, a virus or a vaccine. Results indicated that people who make use of search engines to retrieve information from the internet, are very likely to be presented with urban myths and legends surrounding the disease and vaccinations.
Finally, Section 7 presents the outcomes of our research in various sources, describing further the most popular narratives and urban myths in the context of the H1N1 outbreak or pandemics in general. The different sources are assessed in terms of their narrative structure through the technique of discourse analysis, identifying implicit and explicit narrative motifs that underlie public perceptions of infectious diseases.
Full text: TELL ME Project EU
.
oct 1 2012
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report on ‘Urban Myths and Narratives’ takes many different directions in the investigation ofnarratives and urban myths surrounding epidemics and vaccination, so that a comprehensive framework isset to explain and better understand the public perceptions that underlie infectious disease outbreaks.
Section 1 makes some preliminary remarks and outlines the principal objectives. The report continues to provide the theoretical context behind urban myths, contemporary legends,rumours and other forms of folk narratives, as regards their qualitative elements, purpose and importanceof those narratives for the community and the individual alike.
In particular, Section 2 of the report discusses the significance of myths and legends for humans, in helping them to understand and conceptualise the complexities of the world. Extensive reference is made to the urban myths and legends, concerning the ways in which those survive in time, how they become generated and then diffused to the public. We provide detailed descriptions of the characteristics of urban myths and legends, so that these notions and terms are clearly established for the reader. This section concludes with the identification of the psychosocial functions of urban myths and legends.
In addition to the aforementioned theoretical context built around the functions of the folk narrative, in Section 3 we explore theories of narrative discourse and rhetoric devices, that are most relevant to communication strategies and tactics employed by various actors (e.g. government officials, healthcare professionals, public etc.) during the outbreak of an infectious disease. The extensive analysis of discourse narrative and modes of persuasion and engagement, aims at creating yet another framework where the impact of the various linguistic tools used in communicating messages and symbols could be assessed. The main rhetorical tropes are also presented, namely metaphor, synecdoche, metonymy and irony, which make frequent appearance in the communication during epidemics.
In Section 4, we explore major pandemics in older history, namely the Black Death, the Smallpox pandemic and the 1918 influenza pandemic, highlighting popular conceptions and myths generated at the time, in order to identify recurring patterns of urban myths that still exist in our days. This retrospective approach has also been useful in understanding the societal dynamics that allow myths and legends to be incubated and sustained in collective memory for people.
The description of infectious disease outbreaks continues in Section 5, where the major epidemics in the 21st century are presented. This section is distinct from the previous one, as the impact, spread and communication of infectious diseases is explored under the lens of globalisation, which characterises our present. For each major epidemic, there are detailed accounts of the associated myths and conspiracy theories that emerged during the time, making some preliminary connections with the anti‐vaccination movement, which has seen a considerable growth within the last few years, in connection with the development of the internet and Web 2.0. This section also draws from studies on the media discourse and conceptual metaphors that had been used during the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, SARS and H5N1 influenza. Finally, following a thorough research, this section summarises and lists all the urban myths that appeared during the 2009 (H1N1) pandemic as regards the outbreak itself, as well as the preventive measures suggested by the officials. Findings suggest that many of the urban myths associated with the most recent pandemic, had also been projected in previous disease outbreaks.
Section 6 places under the microscope the anti‐vaccination movement, and different strategies that are used to influence perceptions and behaviour of the general public in their final decisions. The discourse is also presented for this group, along with information about the channels of communication that are used to diffuse their messages. This section closes with a small‐scale research study across four different countries, where the aim was to explore the type of information that a person can be presented with, as a first attempt to retrieve some details about an infectious disease outbreak, a virus or a vaccine. Results indicated that people who make use of search engines to retrieve information from the internet, are very likely to be presented with urban myths and legends surrounding the disease and vaccinations.
Finally, Section 7 presents the outcomes of our research in various sources, describing further the most popular narratives and urban myths in the context of the H1N1 outbreak or pandemics in general. The different sources are assessed in terms of their narrative structure through the technique of discourse analysis, identifying implicit and explicit narrative motifs that underlie public perceptions of infectious diseases.
Full text: TELL ME Project EU
.