The People’s Disease: The Changing Narrative of Tuberculosis Reports in People's Daily (1949-2018)

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Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (9) : 136-155.

The People’s Disease: The Changing Narrative of Tuberculosis Reports in People's Daily (1949-2018)

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Abstract

Modern medicine science regards disease as a biological body disorder, while social construction theory treats the diagnosis, treatment and cognition of disease as a social and institutional results. News reports convey to the public the dominant view of disease in a particular period, thereby affecting people’s perception and imagination of disease. This article examines the changing narratives of tuberculosis (TB), a chronic infectious disease in the People’s Daily in the past seventy years since the founding of People’s Republic of China. The study argues that compared with diseases such as leprosy and AIDS, which have long suffered from moral stigma, TB has been regarded as a “disease of poverty” and associated with “people’s suffering” in the mainstream discourse in China. Under the overall construction of politicization of medicine, TB, a “people’s disease” with special political connotations, has showna “progressive” tone closely linked to the reform of the national political system.

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social constructivism / media framework / infectious disease / tuberculosis

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. The People’s Disease: The Changing Narrative of Tuberculosis Reports in People's Daily (1949-2018). Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2021, 43(9): 136-155

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