Conceptual Metaphors about Covid-19 in Thai Online News

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 is an emerging disease. For this reason, news about the disease is presented in order to know the situation of the epidemic including knowledge of appropriate measures and practices to prevent the disease. The use of metaphorical language, or “metaphor,” is one method journalists choose to use which leads to this research. The objective of this research is to study conceptual metaphors about COVID-19 found in Thai online news. The data was collected from online news in Thai language published on 6 Facebook pages, namely Sanook News, Matichon, Kom Chad Luek, Thai Rath, Khaosod and Daily News between 10 November 2021 - 10 January 2022. From 1,006 news, 2,425 conceptual metaphors were found. The 2,425 metaphors found reflected 6concepts about COVID-19, namely [PREVENTION/TREATMENT OF COVID-19; IS WAR] [COVID-19 IS LIQUID], [COVID-19 IS SUPERNATURAL], [COVID-19 IS LIVING THING], [COVID-19 IS A DISASTER], and [COVID-19 IS A DANGEROUS OBJECT]. Journalists use metaphors in COVID-19news to explain and redefine the reader’s perspective on COVID-19 especially the negative view as well as compose news in concise and distinctive language to attract reader’s attention.