Reanimating experts and authorities: Functions of speech reporting in COVID-19 news

Abstract

This study explores the incorporation of experts’ and authorities’ voices in COVID-19 news articles with respect to their distribution and discursive functions. Based on a corpus 90 articles from 2020 to 2022 in The Korea Herald, the analysis reveals that reporters rely heavily and, at times, uncritically, on biomedical voices, representing them as a homogeneous group that provides a superior form of knowledge. The discursive functions range from providing substance to the coverage, to adding negative emotional coloring, to disowning, and to deauthorizing, which appear to vary according to the dynamics of the pandemic. These intertextual practices do not simply transmit biomedical knowledge to the reader but also mediate public perceptions of the virus by defining what counts as (il)legitimate knowledge and framing it as an alarming threat and an (in)security issue. In effect, multidimensional perspectives are precluded that may also be helpful for a complex issue like the pandemic.