Frontline heroes: bush fires, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the Queensland Press
Article
Article Title | Frontline heroes: bush fires, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the Queensland Press |
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ERA Journal ID | 34629 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Kerby, Martin (Author), Baguley, Margaret (Author), Gehrmann, Richard (Author) and Bedford, Alison (Author) |
Journal Title | Media, War and Conflict |
Journal Citation | 16 (1), pp. 26-43 |
Number of Pages | 18 |
Year | 2023 |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1750-6352 |
1750-6360 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635221990939 |
Web Address (URL) | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1750635221990939 |
Abstract | During the catastrophic 2019 and 2020 bushfire season and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, Queensland’s Courier Mail regularly celebrated firefighters and health workers as national archetypes. By positioning them as the ‘new Anzacs’, the Courier Mail was able to communicate an understanding of the crises using a rhetoric that was familiar, unthreatening and reassuring. The firefighters, both professional and volunteer, were easily subsumed into the mythology’s celebration of national identity. As Queensland’s health workers were predominantly female, urban-based and educated, the article used a more modern iteration of the Anzac mythology better suited to this different context. The emergence of a ‘kinder, gentler Anzac’ in the 1970s and its focus on trauma, suffering and empathy proved equally useful as a rhetorical tool. Both approaches were underpinned by a move away from a narrow military context to the Anzac mythology’s standing as a civic religion that celebrates more universal values such as courage, endurance, sacrifice and comradeship. |
Keywords | Anzac, bushfires, Coronavirus, COVID-19, firefighters, Great War, health workers, mythology, Queensland |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 430302. Australian history |
470107. Media studies | |
Public Notes | File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author. |
Byline Affiliations | School of Education |
School of Humanities and Communication | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q63w6/frontline-heroes-bush-fires-the-coronavirus-covid-19-and-the-queensland-press
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