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Original research
Forensic rhetoric: COVID-19, the forum and the boundaries of healthcare evidence
  1. David Houston Jones
  1. Languages, Cultures & Visual Studies, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor David Houston Jones, Languages, Cultures & Visual Studies, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4SB, UK; d.h.jones{at}exeter.ac.uk

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the shifting role of healthcare evidence in public health presentations. This article investigates the rhetoric of those presentations as a phenomenon indicating both the commitment to evidence-based public health messaging and its political loading in three interlinked case studies: computer-generated imagery ; ‘podium’ presentation and the NSO Fleming leak of COVID-19 contact tracing data. The pandemic has seen healthcare evidence attain ever-greater visibility in public forums, and those forums have themselves undergone rapid transformation. ‘Podium’ presentations such as press conferences have featured colourful imagery, and the manifold visualisations of SARS-CoV-2 which have accompanied television broadcasts and web pages display an insistent internal rhetoric. I analyse both forms of rhetoric for what they say about the ‘forensic’ moment created by COVID-19, and evaluate each in relation to Weizman’s conception of the forum, which enables both ‘frontstage’ corporate and governmental image-building and public scrutiny. This paper evaluates the politics of the presentational strategies which have arisen around COVID-19 and the ethical potential of the forum.

  • COVID-19
  • metaphor
  • medical imaging
  • popular media
  • arts in health/arts and health

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

This article is made freely available for personal use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.

https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usage

https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2023-012609

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    Data availability statement

    Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @davidhoustonjon

    • Contributors DHJ is sole author of this work, and accepts full responsibility for the finished work, and controlled the decision to publish.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.