Visual Messaging of the Coronavirus News Story - Key Findings & Introduction

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel

Visual Messaging of the Coronavirus News Story examines U.S. media coverage of Covid-19 during the first 100 days of 2020 through a two-step visual analysis of 532 randomly selected news images. Five dominant visual themes—fear, hope, loneliness, determination, and grief—emerged from the photos. The fear theme appeared across all coverage waves, while hope and grief increased later as the virus spread and shutdowns began. Composition, lighting, and camera angle are presented as rhetorical techniques shaping public emotional understanding.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Key Findings

Introduction

Visual framing of the pandemic

Visual messaging of the coronavirus news story Alison J. Head, Steven Braun, Margy MacMillan, Jessica Yurkofsky, and Alaina C. Bull KEY FINDINGS 1. Five dominant visual themes – fear, hope, loneliness, determination, and grief – emerged from the sample of news photos analyzed from the 􀁿rst 100 days of U.S. news coverage in 2020. 2. The theme of fear appeared in all three waves of news coverage, while photos with the themes of hope and grief became more prevalent in late February once the pathogen had reached American soil, the number of con􀁿rmed cases started mounting, and businesses, schools, and sporting arenas began to shutdown. 3. Visual techniques of composition, lighting, and angle were used to tell a story in ways that words alone could not. Single subjects were often foregrounded against a looming backdrop or caught at an uncomfortable angle as news photos captured a world that had suddenly become profoundly unfamiliar. Introduction Certain images from the 􀁿rst 100 days of the U.S. Covid-19 news coverage will be seared into our minds for the rest of our lives. Grocery store workers in face masks, medical sta| in hazmat suits, deserted city streets, and nursing home residents waving to their families through window glass are just a few. These photos bear witness to the human condition as a deadly virus infected almost every corner of the planet. While more than three-quarters of a million people around the globe have died from Covid-19, many more have tested positive1 as the world has been shuttered and unemployment rates have skyrocketed. The coronavirus news photos, and articles published with them, have shaped a common understanding about once unimaginable events. These images have created a historical record of the toll the deadly pathogen has taken on individuals and virtually every facet of society. In this two-part series from Project Information Literacy (PIL), we explore U.S. media coverage of Covid-19 during the 􀁿rst 100 days of 2020. In the 􀁿rst report, we examine the shape and 􀂀ow of the coronavirus story across time and digital space using a large sample of stories from a range of news outlets. In this second report, we analyze the visual representation of the coronavirus story by using a sample of news photos as a barometer of the emotions that American society was feeling at the outset of the Covid-19 outbreak. The purpose of this special series is to examine how mainstream news outlets responded to the largest global health crisis in a century. As the news industry is hemorrhaging jobs and advertising revenue, the coronavirus outbreak has created formidable challenges for journalists and photojournalists covering the story.2 Public demand for reliable news and compelling visuals is stronger than ever, as readership of online news sites has surged and many outlets have lowered paywalls and made their coronavirus coverage free for all readers to 3 access. Ultimately, our series is about reclaiming information agency: The ability to exert some control over the torrent of news about Covid-19 in order to remain critically informed at a time when one’s life may depend on it. We present empirical 􀁿ndings that illustrate how news stories and visuals shape our understanding of the world, and how media messages – the written word and visual storytelling – in􀂀uence what we see and learn, what we think, and who we are. Learning resources accompany these reports as ways to build news and visual literacy competencies.4 Visual framing of the pandemic As Covid-19 spread, and our lives were restricted to our homes and immediate neighborhoods, news photos opened a window onto a world we could no longer enter. Images captured eerily vacant airports, store shelves stripped bare, exhausted doctors and nurses, and temporary morgues outside hospitals in New York City. These haunting visuals came to represent a new normal as the coronavirus took its grim toll. In this second report in our series,

FAQs

What five visual themes are identified in the coronavirus news photo sample?

The study finds five dominant visual themes: fear, hope, loneliness, determination, and grief.

How does the fear theme compare with hope and grief across the coverage waves?

Fear appears in all three waves of coverage, while photos showing hope and grief become more prevalent in late February as the virus reaches the U.S. and shutdowns start.

Which visual techniques are used to convey meaning beyond words?

Lighting, angle, composition, and color are described as visual strategies that help photojournalists tell a story in ways that text alone cannot.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel