Student Scholars & Faculty Mentors

Rhetoric Society of America Conference Presentation- Gun violence and the coronavirus pandemic in media discourse: The creation and framing of a novel conceptual metaphor

Name: Bair, Madeleine
Advisor: Mando, Justin
Department: English
Award: Student Research Grant
Abstract: In this presentation, I explore the creation of a novel metaphor through qualitative analysis informed by conceptual metaphor theory. Much attention has been paid to the rhetoric of gun violence in America, but less has been focused on rhetoric associated with pandemics, despite the importance of these events. I examine a Philadelphia Inquirer news article from February 2021 to investigate how the media formulates discourse to create a novel metaphor which posits gun violence as comparable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Media discourse affects viewers’ lived experiences, therefore, utilization of a novel metaphor has the power to be a charge for change in how society views gun violence and how responses to this phenomenon are shaped. The rhetoric of gun violence impacts how society addresses this issue and this study examines a novel metaphor to analyze the greater impact on mental spaces, framing, and discourse. The metaphor utilizes pandemic as the source domain to interpret and explain gun violence, the target domain, as the pandemic is the current reality for the audience of the examined article and is thus utilized to make sense of rises in incidents of gun violence in Philadelphia. I attempt to address and spark discussion about this new metaphor which can ultimately shift our framing of language and societal norms surrounding alarming rises in gun violence seen not only in Philadelphia, but across America. Discussions of rhetoric surrounding gun violence are imperative in how society addresses this issue and creates safer communities; gun violence as pandemic can change how we not only discuss, but view gun violence as it takes away the human perpetrator which makes the issue seem more concrete. It is easier to solve an issue with fewer factors and a solution to ending a disease can seem less overwhelming to handle than the plethora of factors involved in gun violence.