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Pandemics, Publics, and Narrative

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Explorations in Narrative Psychology

Mark Freeman
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Pandemics, Publics,
and Narrative
M A R K DAV I S A N D DAV I NA L O H M

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3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

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© Oxford University Press 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

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by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
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above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Davis, Mark (Mark David McGregor), author. | Lohm, Davina, author.
Title: Pandemics, publics, and narrative / Mark Davis and Davina Lohm.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019032568 (print) | LCCN 2019032569 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190683764 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190683788 (epub) |
ISBN 9780190683771 (updf) | ISBN 9780190683795 (online)
Subjects: LCSH: Influenza Epidemic, 2009-2010—Personal narratives. |
H1N1 influenza. | Epidemics. | Public health.
Classification: LCC RA644. I6 D37 2020 (print) | LCC RA644. I6 (ebook) |
DDC 614.5/18—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032568
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032569

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America

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Contents

Acknowledgments vii

1. Introduction 1
2. Pandemic Tales 22
3. “Be Alert, Not Alarmed!” 46
4. Contagion 72
5. Immunity 96
6. Vulnerabilities 119
7. News Media Hype? 146
8. “The Boy Who Cried Wolf ” and Other Post-Trust Stories 164
9. Conclusion 188

Appendix 1: Participants Who Appear in the Text, with References

to Relevant Chapters 205
Index 207

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Acknowledgments

The research for this book was supported by an Australia Research Council
Discovery Project grant (DP11010181) with additional funding from
Monash University and Glasgow Caledonian University. We are grateful to
our colleagues Paul Flowers, Niamh Stephenson, Emily Waller, and Casimir
Macgregor, who worked with us on the Australian Research Council grant.
Most of the chapters for this book were written during Mark Davis’s
Visiting Senior Lecturer appointment at the Department of Global Affairs
and Social Medicine, King’s College, London. Thanks to our KCL colleagues,
Silvia Camporesi and Maria Vaccarella, for making Mark feel so welcome.
Thanks very much also to Molly Andrews, Corinne Squire, and Mark
Freeman for their advice on moving our book project into publication and
to Oxford University Press for all their help. Most of all we wish to thank
all those in Melbourne, Sydney, and Glasgow who agreed to participate in
interviews and focus groups.

Mark Davis and Davina Lohm

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1
Introduction

How could you know if a pandemic had emerged? A news story, for example,
on television or online or discussed in conversation with a friend might be
your first inkling. You might go online and search for information. There
you might find public-service guidance framed in terms of preparedness
for a public health emergency. Other news stories fed to television, online,
and elsewhere may attract your attention. Facebook friends might send you
messages, and your Twitter feed might become active. Your employer might
send out a message to your e-mail and mobile phone, underlining the scale of
the emergency and perhaps linking you with expert advice. Health authori-
ties and political leaders might appear in the media, sharing information and
imparting reassurance. This pandemic storytelling across media rich social
settings is an important theme for this book.
How, though, would you interpret these messages as a guide to action, par-
ticularly with so many of them from so many sources? You might under-
stand that it is not easy to know ahead of time how the pandemic will turn
out, thus experiencing a high degree of uncertainty. Imagining what might
happen and what to do might lead you to consider accounts of previous
pandemics, including fictionalized or part-fiction/part-fact materials from
literature, film, and television, among others. Understandings of our worlds,
relationships, and selves are said to be found in the stories we encounter,
make, and share (Bruner 2002). Similarly, pandemic narratives help us to
understand contagion, identify its possible ramifications, and take positions
and actions, individually and collectively, on the implied threat to life. In the
following chapters we explore some examples of pandemic narratives from
popular culture and how they inform the social response to contagion.
Adding to this richly nuanced narrative culture on pandemics is the adop-
tion by health communicators of narrative as a method to persuade publics
and individuals to take action. This use of narrative has taken form in radio
plays, videos, online games, graphic novels, class room curricula, social mar-
keting, and other materials that convey scientific knowledge and advice in
what are thought to be the compellingly immersive and emotionally rich

Pandemics, Publics, and Narrative. Mark Davis and Davina Lohm, Oxford University Press (2020).
© Oxford University Press.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190683764.001.0001

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