FEAR CREATION: PSYCHOLINGUISTIC AND LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE HEADLINES CORPORA OF PAKISTANI ELECTRONIC MEDIA ON COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

A new global health crisis, 21st century’s technological jammer, Corona virus which started in the mid of January in Wuhan Province of China by killing thousands of infected people in days and soon after went up catching and killing the people in different regions of the world including Iran, Italy, Spain, USA, Denmark, Germany, UK, India and Pakistan etc. has been represented by international media differently. The current study endeavours to investigate the discourses of fear, broadcasted during the Covid-19. In this respect, data has been collected from GEO News, Dunya News, 92 News, DAWN News, GEO News, ARY News and PTV Home News channels of Pakistan April and May 2020 by using simple random sampling technique. Collected data was in the form of headlines which was transcribed and translated in English language. The data has been analysed through constructionist approach of emotion which envisage that psychological compounds such as anger, disgust, fear, etc. arise at the moment when more rudimentary psychological elements, for instance, representation of sensations from inside the body, exteroceptive sensations (visual sensations, auditory sensations) and concept knowledge of emotion categories are combined. Emotions are more than the sum of representations of the body, exteroceptive sensations, and concept knowledge. A person experiences an emotion when concept knowledge or knowledge about fear and exteroceptive sensations (the sights and sounds of being in a dark alley) are used to make meaning of body states (a beating heart, sweaty palms, and feelings of startle) in a given instance. (Barrett, 2006a, 2009, 2012; Wilson-Mendenhall et al., 2011; Lindquist and Barrett, 2012; Lindquist, 2013) explicitly expect a role for language in this process, insofar as language supports the acquisition and use of concept knowledge that is used to make sensations meaningful as emotions. The study finds that Pakistani electronic media used such language which triggered the emotion of fear whereas the discourse produced by command and control system was encouraging and optimistic.