'Generic visuals' of Covid-19 in the news: Invoking banal belonging through symbolic reiteration

Giorgia Aiello; Helen Kennedy; C W Anderson; Camilla Mørk Røstvik

doi:10.1177/13678779211061415

'Generic visuals' of Covid-19 in the news: Invoking banal belonging through symbolic reiteration

Int J Cult Stud. 2022 Jul;25(3-4):309-330. doi: 10.1177/13678779211061415.

Authors

Giorgia Aiello^{1

2}, Helen Kennedy³, C W Anderson¹, Camilla Mørk Røstvik⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds, UK.
² Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Italy.
³ Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, UK.
⁴ School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History, University of Aberdeen, UK.

Abstract

In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, images of the virus molecule and 'flatten-the-curve' line charts were inescapable. There is now a vast visual repertoire of vaccines, people wearing face masks in everyday settings, choropleth maps and both bar and line charts. These 'generic visuals' circulate widely in the news media and, however unremarkable, play an important role in representing the crisis in particular ways. We argue that these generic visuals promote banal nationalism, localism and cosmopolitanism in the face of the crisis, and that they do so through the symbolic reiteration of a range of visual resources across news stories. Through an analysis of three major news outlets in the UK, we examine how generic visuals of Covid-19 contribute to these banal visions and versions of belonging and, in doing so, also to foregrounding the role of the state in responding to the crisis.

Keywords: Covid-19; banal nationalism; data visualization; generic visuals; news media; stock photography; symbolic reiteration; visual communication.