Unlocking Newspaper Headlines: Deconstructing the East-West Transcultural Stereotypes in Times of COVID-19

Abstract

The topic of this paper is the analysis of synonymous lexical relations in COVID -19 target-related newspaper headings and articles referring to society (e.g. culture) and economy (e.g. tourism). Drawing from the foundation of cognitive, linguistic and communicaton functions in the media, the research looks into the qualitative content analysis of the randomly chosen Western i.e. American and Eastern i.e. Japanese online newspapers. The aim is to use cross referencing to unpack a possible conceptual-linguistic framework as a background narrative activity in depicting both cultures. As a result, the understanding of the articles unlocks the stereotypical narrative of “alterity” through a direct synonymous reference in the text and/or as a result of a myth-related deconstruction.