Event Details

This talk will explore the metaphors for the coronavirus (COVID-19) and invite the audience to contribute to the discussion about what they have found most striking and the most or least appropriate.

Metaphors have been central to communication about COVID-19, from the virus as an 'enemy' through multiple 'waves' of the pandemic to a 'wall' of immunity provided by vaccines. Why is this? What kinds of metaphors have been used, and for what purposes? And do metaphors really matter? The event will be an opportunity to consider these questions based on research on metaphors in communication, and to discuss the metaphors that participants have found particularly appropriate or inappropriate.