الخطاب البصري لجائحة كورونا كما تعكسه أغلفة المجلات العربية و العالمية : دراسة تحليلية

الملخص EN

The visual discourse of Coronavirus pandemic on the Arab and international magazines' covers: An analytical study

News about the coronavirus pandemic have dominated the covers of Arab and international magazines since early 2020.

Through pictures, cartoons, colors, headlines, spaces and layouts, they have created a visual discourse aimed at conveying certain ideas and establishing specific meanings and connotations about the pandemic itself and the way various countries and societies are handling it.

In light of this, the current study seeks to analyze the visual discourse of the Covid-19 pandemic as reflected on the covers of Arab and international magazines during the period from January 2020 to the end of June 2020, with the aim of identifying the most important features and trends of this discourse, the actors affecting it, the ideas and indications promoted and the context of its circulation.

To this end, five Magazines are selected; namely, the Egyptian “Al-Musawar”, the Saudi “Al-Majalla”, the Chinese “Caixin”, the American “Time” and the British “The Economist”.

By applying the approach of critical qualitative analysis of visual discourse, as well as the multimodal analysis and different tools for visual discourse analysis, the study reached the conclusion that the Covid-19 pandemic has been politically exploited on all magazine covers, as a general orientation of those visual discourse in those magazines, especially for the promotion of ideas about the collapse of globalization in the post-Covid-19 era.

Solely, Caixin has promoted a healthcare and medical discourse; therefore, physicians and workers in the health and medical sector emerged as actors on the covers of this Chinese magazine, while heads of state and political figures emerged as actors in the Egyptian “Al-Musawar”, the Saudi “Al-Majalla”, and the American “Time”.

The covers of magazines have reflected the economic repercussions of the pandemic, such as the sharp collapse in oil prices and the rise in unemployment rates, especially in America.

The American “Time” and the British “The Economist” magazines have distinguished themselves with their outstanding layout ideas that have been apparent in the cover designs aimed to support the visual discourse of the pandemic reflecting different approaches of both magazines.