IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i24p9595-d466066.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

If the Coronavirus Doesn’t Scare You, the Banners Will—A Case Study of Early COVID-19 Banners

Author

Listed:
  • Hongjie Dong

    (School of Liberal Arts, Xi’an University, Xi’an 710065, China)

  • Minli Zhou

    (Department of Liberal Arts, Guangdong University of Education, Guangzhou 510303, China)

  • Dewei Che

    (Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria)

  • Adams Bodomo

    (Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria)

Abstract

As a crucial element of China’s political and cultural life, “banners”, or biāoyǔ, have been around for decades, in support of national-level policies such as family planning and the governing mottos of Presidents. The banners that have emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic which was also the subject of a national-level driven policy, have been involved in a nation-wide public debate over the language styles of banners used to urge people to stay indoors. Based on the analysis of the early COVID-19 banners and the related online comments, this article analyzes the language style patterns of the banners and the mode of banner circulation. The study found that the manner in which the banners are circulated goes beyond a unidirectional path of on-site instant communication. This process is facilitated by social networks and mass media, which, during circulation, twice created a banner upgrade. The upgrades created decontextualization and function extension of the banners, whereas audience feedback triggered an adaptive adjustment of the language style of the banners. This article suggests that the study of the use and spread of banners, especially the early COVID-19 banners, sheds light on the study of mass communication and discourse style, and also how measures to contain pandemics such as COVID-19 can be communicated.

Suggested Citation

  • Hongjie Dong & Minli Zhou & Dewei Che & Adams Bodomo, 2020. "If the Coronavirus Doesn’t Scare You, the Banners Will—A Case Study of Early COVID-19 Banners," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-19, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:24:p:9595-:d:466066
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9595/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9595/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kohli, Chiranjeev & Leuthesser, Lance & Suri, Rajneesh, 2007. "Got slogan? Guidelines for creating effective slogans," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 415-422.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ella Ward & Song Yang & Jenni Romaniuk & Virginia Beal, 2020. "Building a unique brand identity: measuring the relative ownership potential of brand identity element types," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(4), pages 393-407, July.
    2. repec:ers:journl:v:vi:y:2018:i:1:p:3-13 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Paulo Duarte Silveira & Susana Galvão & Paulo Bogas, 2018. "The Influence of Customer Retention Time on Slogan Recall and Recognition: An Empirical Study," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(1), pages 3-13.
    4. Dass, Mayukh & Kohli, Chiranjeev & Kumar, Piyush & Thomas, Sunil, 2014. "A study of the antecedents of slogan liking," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2504-2511.
    5. Gianluca Fiocchi & Mona Seyed Esfahani, 2024. "Exploring the uniqueness of distinctive brand assets within the UK automotive industry," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 31(1), pages 1-15, January.
    6. Paulo SILVEIRA & Susana GALVÃO & Graça PENTEADO, 2017. "“Yes They Can?†- An Empirical Study on the Effect of Slogans in Brand Awareness," Book chapters-LUMEN Proceedings, in: Camelia IGNATESCU & Antonio SANDU & Tomita CIULEI (ed.), Rethinking Social Action. Core Values in Practice, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 75, pages 820-831, Editura Lumen.
    7. Eva Tuckyta Sari Sujatna & Heriyanto & Kasno Pamungkas & Larasati Puspa Martani Sugianto, 2022. "‘Let’s Take a Look...’: Textual Meaning of the UNESCO Global Geoparks Slogans," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 11, May.
    8. Mosarrat Farhana, 2012. "Brand Elements Lead to Brand Equity: Differentiate or Die," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 4(4), pages 223-233.
    9. Yao Song & Yan Luximon, 2019. "Design for Sustainability: The Effect of Lettering Case on Environmental Concern from a Green Advertising Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-15, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:24:p:9595-:d:466066. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.