The Ecosystem Health Metaphor and COVID-19 Containment Measures as Constructed in the Kenyan Daily Nation Newspaper

Abstract

The media plays a substantial role in highlighting crises including COVID-19 and climate change. This paper sought to establish the construction of the ecosystem health metaphor in the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper’s reportage of COVID-19 between 12th of March 2020 and 12th of July 2020. The aim of the research was to established the metaphorical relationship between the ecosystem and COVID-19 containment measures. The ecosystem health metaphor represents the environment as a body and pollution as a disease. The study aimed at providing a novel perspective on pandemic response strategies, emphasizing the importance of holistic approaches and the interdependence of components for overall environmental health and resilience. Schema theory was employed as a framework. Corpus linguistics tools were used for data collection and analysis. The findings indicated that the COVID-19 mitigation measures posed both positive and negative impact on the health of the environment. The existing description of ecosystem health includes: dying planet, healthy planet and unhealthy earth. The pandemic influenced the ecosystem health through the mitigation measures such as hand sanitizers, wearing protective gear and lockdowns. The analysis brought out COVID-19 mitigation measures and climate change as similar threats to humanity. It was further established that the similar aggression performed by COVID-19 containment measures and climate change shows a relation between human health and environmental concerns.