Attempts to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a state ideology in public communication Cover Image

Опити за употреба в публичната комуникация на пандемията Ковид-19 като държавна идеология
Attempts to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a state ideology in public communication

Author(s): Georgi Lozanov
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, History, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Cultural history, Psychology, Library and Information Science, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Education and training, Epistemology, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Aesthetics, Social Philosophy, Political Sciences, Civil Society, Governance, Communication studies, Sociology, Economic history, Local History / Microhistory, Sociology of Art, History of Art, Labour and Social Security Law
Published by: Факултет по журналистика и масова комуникация, Софийски университет „Св. Кл. Охридски”
Keywords: power;war;ideology;conservatism;liberalism;nationalism;media;pandemic;simulacrum

Summary/Abstract: The article looks at the systematic attempts to transform the coronavirus epidemic into a state ideology similar to the Marxist-Leninist one, within the former Eastern Bloc. However, the current ideological attempts do not rely on repressive state apparatuses. They are voluntarily accepted. What operates behind this voluntary acceptance is a public communication strategy based on the war model and in a regime of hyper-information, i.e. infodemic. It is a strategy with a pyramidal structure, the top of which is held by the state government, reframed as “good” power. For the first time at the base of an ideology is not a historic event, but a natural one. This gives such a nature-based ideology the chance to exploit and govern the most basic existential fears of people. Furthermore, the article is focused on the current Bulgarian political situation. However, the aforementioned pandemic’s ideological strategies and their influence in Bulgaria are placed in the broader context of the return of conservative ideologies and the destabilization of the liberal consensus in Europe and the States.The article looks at the systematic attempts to transform the coronavirus epidemic into a state ideology similar to the Marxist-Leninist one, within the former Eastern Bloc. However, the current ideological attempts do not rely on repressive state apparatuses. They are voluntarily accepted. What operates behind this voluntary acceptance is a public communication strategy based on the war model and in a regime of hyper-information, i.e. infodemic. It is a strategy with a pyramidal structure, the top of which is held by the state government, reframed as “good” power. For the first time at the base of an ideology is not a historic event, but a natural one. This gives such a nature-based ideology the chance to exploit and govern the most basic existential fears of people. Furthermore, the article is focused on the current Bulgarian political situation. However, the aforementioned pandemic’s ideological strategies and their influence in Bulgaria are placed in the broader context of the return of conservative ideologies and the destabilization of the liberal consensus in Europe and the States.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 9
  • Page Range: 36-48
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Bulgarian