From Microbe to Menace: A Comparative Analysis of Monster Metaphors in Pakistani and Chinese Print Media during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Conceptual Metaphor Theory” (CMT) is a good tool for conceptualizing various phenomena. To understand how the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2021) was understood, reported, and represented in Pakistan, COVID-19-related news stories were extracted from the daily, Dawn (January-December 2020) by using the Pragglejazz group of Identification Method for Metaphors (2007). The main purpose of the present research was to understand how fear was mongered and instilled in the people's hearts to keep them indoors. One way to achieve this aim is to represent something as dangerous, deathly, and imminent. One widely reported conceptual metaphor used to realize this objective was to represent COVID-19 as a monster that is COVID-19 IS MONSTER. News stories extracted from Dawn were compiled into a Corpus for concordance using AntConc. The analysis revealed that the conceptual metaphors COVID-19 IS MONSTER in the Dawn corpus existed with the frequency of 138 and the Global Times corpus occurred with the frequency of 121 metaphors. The monster metaphor in COVID-19 communication has been instrumental in conveying urgency and mobilizing collective action. However, its use also demands caution to avoid over simplification, stigmatization, or fear-driven narratives. Ultimately, metaphors like this reflect how society deals with unprecedented crises, blending cultural epitomes with contemporary realities. Future research in this area would benefit from including more metaphor areas and search words or using larger corpora.