Ebola outbreak: Assessing the Democratic Republic of Congo media response

Background: The recent Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak, considered the worst since its discovery in 1976 in Central Africa, has drawn attention worldwide. The outbreak has been more prevalent in Western African countries such as Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. However, central African countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo have also reported several cases of EVD, but the outbreak was quickly contained. This apparent successful containment has been linked to the effectiveness of well-tailored preventative measures including media campaigns. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the post-colonial construction of the Ebola outbreak in mainstream Congolese media.

Method: Using a qualitative interpretive descriptive analysis, a thematic analysis of a corpus of news articles from available online and print media was conducted. A news article database was created with the keywords “Ebola,”  “Virus,” and “Congo”. Imagery, space devoted, qualitative aspects of language, the prevalence of medical compared to superstitious or alarmist linguistic usages, and types of metaphor in these media representations were categorized and enumerated.

Results: Three themes emerged from the study: (a) the metaphor of warfare, which presents the Ebola virus as an invader and the country’s people as defenders; (b) nationalism, Ebola control as source of nationalist pride; and (c) fear, with Ebola presented as a killer.

Conclusion: Controlling outbreaks of diseases in low-income countries, requires an efficient preventative strategy that underscores patterns relative to the spread of the disease but that also finds traction within the culture of the affected populations. Future interventions in Africa may use similar techniques used in Congolese print media to decrease risk factors as part of a wider campaign to mitigate and prevent the spread of EVD.

Keywords: Ebola virus, D.R. Congo, Western Africa, outbreak, media, control