88 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 Media’s Voice in the Noise of Covid-19 Outbreak in the United States Sahar Javed M.Phil. Scholar (Applied Linguistics) University of Management and Technology, Pakistan. saharyousaf77@gmail.com Abstract This research explores the effect of media broadcasting during the covid-19 outbreak in the United States. To find out facts and figures related to broadcasting news, a methodology based on corpus linguistics and CDA is used for analyzing data. The data is taken from the covid-19 corpus by Sketch Engine, where verb collocates of the keyword “pandemic” were chosen to reveal prosodies behind the covid-19 outbreak. Moreover, verb collocates were categorized into four themes e.g. coronavirus outbreak, coronavirus transmission, death toll, and isolation. The frequencies of these categories are investigated through English Corpora, which is a monitor corpus, giving regular updates on the covid-19 situation. While two highly frequent verb collocates “pandemic caused and pandemic occurs” are analyzed in more detail by checking out concordances in a qualitative way. The study sheds light on the media’s positive role in making people aware of the deadliest outcomes of coronavirus. However, fear of misinformation remains, which can be resolved by accessing authentic media sources and by neglecting conspiracy theories. Keywords: CDA, Corpus Linguistics, Covid-19 Corpus by Sketch Engine, English Corpora 1 Introduction According to Wang, Horby et al. (2020), Wuhan, China, and Hubei province turned to be the focal point of pneumonia outburst in December 2019 without any cause, elevating concentrated attention not only in China but worldwide. Immediate steps were taken by Chinese health authorities to control and describe the disease by isolating the infected and non-infected patients, closely screening the contacts of people, clinical and epidemiological data study of patients, and by developing diagnostic procedures of disease. The development of covid-19 matched with SARS (respiratory disorder), which flared up in 2003 brought by an alternative form of coronavirus and killing 349 patients out of 5327 in china due to confirmed infection. Therefore, web-based social networking, for example, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram became essential wellsprings of data. They were likewise vehicles for counterfeit news and disinformation. Media has been perceived mailto:saharyousaf77@gmail.com 89 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 as an amazing power of forming how we experience the world and ourselves. As coronavirus has turned the world upside down and it is rambling everywhere. So, here the role of media matters a lot that how it is portraying this worldwide pandemic. No doubt that media has played a pivotal role in creating awareness among people. It educated people about symptoms, precautions, and preventive measures of covid-19. Moreover, social distancing, isolation, and quarantine were the most aired terms on social media as safety tips and to stop transmission of disease from an infected person. But, indeed, misinformation was also spreading through social media creating mental health issues among listeners. Social media was narrated as the main source of getting immediate updates about covid- 19. After a research study, the researchers found that almost 82.0% of people use social media as an information source and that anxiety leads them to mental health issues. While the reason behind these issues is disinformation bombarded by media that made people confused about real circumstances and created fear among them. Many people also expressed their feelings of nervousness, anxiety, unknown fear, and worry on media (Gao, Zheng et al. 2020). In another study, 673 tweets were taken, out of which 66% were posted through informal sources while 19.2% were verified by Twitter accounts.91.2% content in these tweets was containing serious matters, 81.4% of tweets provided unpretentious information, almost 70% of information was related to medical, while some tweets were manipulating the correct information. The study revealed that the rate of misinformation was 33.8% via informal sources 31.0% via unverified accounts on Twitter (Kouzy, Abi Jaoude et al. 2020). 2 Literature Review During the covid-19 crisis, media became the primary source of information across the globe. Many researchers investigated the contribution of social media to society to find out its positive and negative effects. A few investigations are as follows: Ahmad and Murad (2020) studied the impact of social media broadcasting during covid- 19 in Iraq. The researchers carried out an online questionnaire survey and the sample of the study was 516 social media users. After analyzing the data through SPSS software, the researchers reported that the majority of social media users experienced psychological anxiety due to media broadcasting. Even though the researchers have very aptly carried out this research by creating 90 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 awareness about the negative role of social media, but the researchers should have explored the positive role of media to make their research more fruitful. In another study, the researchers examined the prevalence of mental health problems among Chinese citizens due to media’s broadcasting during the covid-19 situation. They conducted an online survey, and the sample of the study was 4872 respondents, taken from 31 provinces of China. The findings revealed that the majority of Chinese citizens were exposed to mental health problems due to social media exposure and these findings further put implications on the Chinese government to eradicate the root cause of these mental health problems (Gao, Zheng et al. 2020). In this research, the researchers have found the percentage of people suffering from mental health issues, but they have not discussed the root cause of these issues. Hence, this research could be more informative by further investigating the root of these mental health issues among people. Naeem (2021) investigated the thinking of people about social media and its role in creating fear among people. For this purpose, the researcher took data from 34 participants owing active social media accounts. The participants were contacted through telephones and their opinions were recorded. The findings revealed that lack of expert opinion, logic, and communication in media broadcasting resulted in creating panic among people. Therefore, the researcher has aptly carried out this study by digging out the reasons for panic among social media users. (Zhao and Zhou 2020) aimed to explore the relationship between social media use and mental health issues during covid-19. They conducted an online questionnaire survey and the sample of the study was 512 Chinese college students. Regression studies revealed that a higher level of social media use was connected with poor mental health because the depression rate was high among social media users. Hence, it can be inferred from this study that social media is responsible for the mental stress of people. But the positive role of media became overshadowed in this study, and it is the prime responsibility of the researchers to give credit to media’s role in creating awareness among people. 3 Methodology The methodology is corpus-based intermingled with corpus-driven approaches, the first one tests the already existing hypothesis while the second one scrutinizes the most salient and frequent data see (Tognini-Bonelli 2001). In this article, the focus of the researcher is on the word “Pandemic” in the covid-19 corpus by Sketch Engine. As this word is loaming everywhere 91 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 nowadays creating a sense of fear and pessimism among masses. So, this is the most suitable and relevant word for in-depth analysis to understand its sketch among people. And to answer the research questions, a word sketch of the pandemic is obtained by using covid-19 corpus processed by Sketch Engine into an open research dataset (Kilgarriff, Rychly et al. 2004). Sketch Engine permits corpora to be transferred onto an online database by tagging it grammatically to get collocates that are grammatically interrelated. According to Guentner (1993)"sketch" shows up just periodically as an equivalent word for drawing or plan under the headings "Painting," "Drawing," and "Structure”. To get more fruitful results, the researcher used a mixed-method approach (Mautner 2016). In the end, the two most frequent words collocating with pandemic are analyzed in depth. These word clusters are “pandemic occurs” and “pandemic caused”. Both are the same terms and further investigations are done based on concordances to reveal prosodies related to them. Rationale of the Study In past studies, the researchers investigated the negative role of media in creating mental health issues, stress, anxiety, and depression among people by using online questionnaires, surveys, and interviews. But none of them discussed the positive and informative role of social media, which is discussed in this research study by using corpus tools. Research Questions Q. 1. What do the collocates of the word “pandemic” reveal about its outbreak in the U.S? Q. 2. How is the role media portrayed during the pandemic outbreak in the U.S? 4 Discussion The main objective of getting collocates during data analysis is to check media’s broadcasting in U. S, because it was the most severely impacted country, with the highest number of covid-19 cases and deaths. Therefore, the word ‘Pandemic’ is taken as a keyword for making further revelations about coronavirus outbreak in America. So being independent of most frequent collocates, verb collocates are chosen with the word “Pandemic” which is used as a noun in the corpus (28,935-word tokens). The verbs with pandemic as a subject are containing 6000 (21.37 per million) word tokens while verbs with pandemic as objects are containing 4926 (17.55 per million) word tokens. 92 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 Table 1. Verbs with pandemic as subject Verbs with pandemic as object Collocates Frequency Salience Pose 51 7.2 Pandemic poses Occur 376 7.17 Pandemic occurs Progress 40 7.13 The pandemic progressed Emerge 69 7.01 Pandemic emerged Begin 68 6.89 Pandemic began Highlight 57 6.85 Pandemic highlighted the Unfold 21 6.65 As the pandemic unfolds Spread 42 6.6 Pandemic spreading Plan 21 6.52 Influenza pandemic plans Arise 37 6.37 Pandemic arose Kill 20 6.3 Pandemic killed Threaten 17 6.23 Pandemics threaten Hit 15 6.18 Pandemic hit Originate 23 6.16 Collocates Frequency Salience Declare 163 9.12 Declared a pandemic Become 198 8.08 Become a pandemic Cause 1097 7.95 Pandemic caused Combat 48 7.5 Combat influenza pandemics Mitigate 46 7.45 Mitigate an influenza pandemic Face 54 7.26 Facing a pandemic Avert 26 7.23 Avert pandemics Confront 26 7.23 Confront the next pandemic Originate 33 7.18 Pandemic originated in Spark 22 7.06 Sparking a pandemic Manage 49 6.93 Manage an influenza pandemic Emerge 118 6.86 Emerging pandemic End 19 6.56 Pandemic ended Fight 18 6.55 93 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 Pandemic originating Continue 39 6.15 Pandemic continues to Start 34 6.1 Pandemic started Affect 84 6.06 Affected by the pandemic Fight pandemics Prevent 165 6.4 Prevent pandemics Trigger 60 6.35 Trigger a pandemic Control 102 6.3 Control the pandemic Occur 41 6.18 Pandemics occurred in Believe 25 6.18 Pandemic is believed to have Here salience is indicating log dice, which is a typicality score to check the strength of collocates. A higher log dice score indicates stronger collocates. while a low score indicates that collocates also combine with other words see (Rychlý 2008).In the table above, the salient and more or less frequent subsets of verb collocation are providing strong preliminary indications concerning the main topics of the word “pandemic” as a noun (Baker 2004). Both forms of verb collocation are divided into the four thematic categories in Table 2. After categorizing the collocates, their relative frequencies are determined that are shown in the form of the pie chart. The figure below is showing the lexically rich category of “coronavirus outbreak” with a 74% relative frequency. While other three categories are lexically poor with the following relative frequencies e.g. isolation 17%, death toll 3%, and coronavirus transmission 6%. The greater frequency of “coronavirus outbreak” sheds light on the disastrous consequences faced by people throughout the world and especially by people in the United States. Pie chart. Frequency distribution of categorized verb collocates Coronavirus outbreak 74% 6% Death Toll 3% Isolation 17% 94 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 Table 2. Categorized verb collocates of noun Pandemic Categories Examples Coronavirus outbreak Pandemic poses, Pandemic occurs, Pandemic progressed, pandemic emerged, pandemic began, pandemic highlighted the, pandemic originating, pandemic started, declared a pandemic become a pandemic, a pandemic caused, pandemic originated in emerging pandemic, the pandemic is believed to have, pandemic occurred in, sparking a pandemic, as the pandemic unfolds Coronavirus Transmission pandemic spreading, influenza pandemic plans, pandemic continues to, affected by the pandemic Death Toll pandemic killed, pandemic hit, pandemic threaten, Pandemic arose Isolation mitigate an influenza pandemic, manage an influenza pandemic, prevent pandemics, fight pandemics, control the pandemic, combat influenza pandemics, trigger a pandemic, pandemic ended, confront the next pandemic, avert pandemics 4.1 Coronavirus Outbreak All verbs in this category are related to origin, emergence, beginning, and outburst of coronavirus affecting the economy, education, industries, trade, traveling, labor with physical and mental health. According to Guo, Cao et al. (2020), the severe acute respiratory tract epidemic firstly ruined Wuhan city of China, perhaps identified with the seafood market. A few examinations anticipated bat to be the ultimate reason for transmitting this repository disorder. Notwithstanding, it’s not confirmed yet that SARS-CoV-2 rooted out from the seafood market. To get a detailed analysis of this outbreak, the collocation of “coronavirus outbreak” was monitored through coronavirus corpus https://www.english-corpora.org/. This corpus grows continuously in size as it regularly updates its data according to current scenarios. Therefore, this research study has been carried out on the corpus of 400 million words taken from 20 countries updated on May 21, 2020. The usage of collocation “coronavirus outbreak” starting from Jan1, 2020 to June 21, 2020, was recorded in the form frequencies and https://www.english-corpora.org/ 95 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 shown below in the form of a graph. And the findings are further enriched with news headlines aired during the peak time of covid-19. The graph has shown that this word was noisiest on March 21, 2020, after which everything went under lockdown leading to catastrophic consequences. It started in December and went to its peak level with an unimaginable outburst in mid of march after which the frequency of this outbreak lowered down each day. If medical progression and intensity of risk are taken under consideration, then we will see different and confusing scenarios. As the number of infected cases, deaths, and recovered cases changed every day declaring former news to be out of date and creating a question mark among the masses. In this flickering situation, it’s very challenging for the media to convince people and win their trust. Graph 1. Frequencies of Coronavirus Outbreak at different intervals. The entire world stopped with the sudden news of this outburst and fear of death arose among them. The fear of people was fair, as this novel pandemic had no vaccine and only symptoms of the disease were cured through medicines. It’s quite astonishing that a disease starting from the corner of a small city spread everywhere and people who wanted to save themselves need to adopt social distancing. As a result, “stay home, stay safe” became a slogan worldwide. Example 1. is a glimpse of some news headlines before this outbreak on 20-03-20 US. Example 1. News updates washingtonpost.com the world is grappling with its responses to an onslaught of disinformation around the coronavirus outbreak. Well before the epidemic, however, human rights groups and free speech activists 2 1 0 8 3 3 8 9 2 4 0 9 2 9 8 5 7 3 7 3 8 5 8 7 1 4 1 8 8 8 1 2 2 6 4 6 3 5 2 9 5 3 9 1 3 3 4 5 6 3 2 3 6 2 3 6 3 2 2 4 7 1 2 6 9 https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/x4.asp?rs=&t=31728994&ID=15426325349 https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/x4.asp?t=31729063&ID=15429089583 96 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 jpost.com countries closing their borders and canceling all their flights as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. # " Due to reduction and cancellation of flights all over the world and According to Goolsbee (2020), after so many deaths in strings in the united states, there is an ultimate reason to be worried about as this outburst plunged the stock market completely. People are fearful about their health and nobody is going to the dentists, schools, gyms, restaurants by saying a big no to traveling, which ultimately leads to a worse economic situation in the U.S. Andres Vinelli (2020) investigated that many manufacturing industries and plants temporarily closed in the mid of March, affecting the transport of goods and disrupting supply chains which disrupted their income and the overall economy. The pandemic affected every country worldwide but some countries suffered to their peak limit and the United States is one of them. The epicenter of this outburst was New York and 42% of deaths along with 30% total cases were reported in three main cities e.g. Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey in starting days of June, however, it is also reported that the number of cases is dropping with time in these cities. In addition, other populous cities in U.S e.g. Illinois, California, and Texas were also reported with the highest cases (ADELINE, JIN et al. 2020). Graph 2. Frequencies of coronavirus cases in the United States New York was reported with more than 2.4 million cases on June 26, 2020, which was a peak level. Graph 2. has shown the peak number of cases in five states in the U.S on June 26, 2020 (Elflein 2020). 0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 400000 New York California New Jersey Illinois Texas 390415 201114 170196 139434 134558 Series2 Series1 https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/x4.asp?t=31729038&ID=15429075152 97 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 4.2 Coronavirus Transmission All verbs in this category are related to the spreading and transmission of the coronavirus pandemic. As flu, tiredness, chest pain, shortness of breath, sore throat, dry cough, and conjunctivitis, etc. are the symptoms of this pandemic whose human-to-human transmission was confirmed through laboratory tests in Wuhan (Li, Guan et al. 2020). Moreover, Lau, Li et al. (2012) studied the interspecies transmission of coronavirus in bats as this pandemic infects animals by adopting new hosts. According to Elflein (2020), covid-19 was an epidemic and suddenly it took the shape of the pandemic as it was declared by WHO on March 11, 2020. The term pandemic alludes to different flare-ups of an irresistible ailment undermining various pieces of the world simultaneously; when the transmission is this boundless, it can never again be followed back to the nation where it started. The quantity of covid-19 cases was over 9.7 million and it influenced around 210 nations and domains. The vast majority who contracted the infection endured mellow manifestations, for example, a hack, a cold, or a high temperature. Whereas, in increasingly serious cases, the disease caused breathing challenges and even pneumonia. covid-19 influences individuals, yet those at higher hazard incorporate more seasoned people and individuals with previous ailments, including diabetes, coronary illness, and lung malady. Example 2. News updates older woman with health problems. # Inmates are feeling under threat, and describe conditions they say are rife with risk. # " The anxiety is through the roof here, " said Deepan Budlakoti, imprisoned at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, a provincial jail. " We're being locked down here left, right and center. When we do get time out, everyone runs for the showers and we end up with 20 guys in one shower. Hardly sanitary. " # Public health officials have recommended people keep at least two meters apart to prevent coronavirus transmission, but that's impossible in narrow cells and cellblocks that house at least 20 inmates (theglobeandmail.com, March 20, 2020). The frequencies of this collocation through the same coronavirus corpus revealed that it was the 8th most frequent collocate on Jan 1, 2020, but with time it went to its highest peak with a frequency of 86 on March 21, 2020, which was also a peak time of the covid-19 outbreak. The graph is like a flickering flame of a candle that burnt to its full intensity in the mid of March by transmitting this infection to many more. The frequency of this word cluster is describing that it https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/x4.asp?t=51556576&ID=15433167090 98 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 was talk of the town, somewhere in a positive sense or maybe in a pessimistic sense. And media played its role in creating awareness among the masses about its symptoms and transmission. Graph 3. Frequencies of “Coronavirus Transmission” over time As of April 14, New York remained the epicenter of coronavirus cases in the United States, with 10,834 deaths and more than 200,000 confirmed cases. However, experts warned through media sources that several different cities and states are quickly becoming trouble locations of this havoc. 4. 3 Death Toll The verb collocates (pandemic killed, pandemic hit, pandemic threaten, affected by pandemic) are highlighting the disastrous consequences of this deadliest pandemic which swallowed many lives without taking a burp, and still, it was not known that where it was going to end. Graph 4. has shown that this death toll gained intensity in March but still, there was no expected stable situation because the situation used to worsen on and off in no time. 8 18 10 11 24 52 86 81 53 57 36 61 78 99 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 Graph 4. Frequencies of “Death Toll” over time According to www.statista.com, the most affected countries of covid-19 were the US, Spain, Italy, Russia, UK, etc. A survey conducted on June 26, 2020, reported that there have been more than 124,400 demises identified with the deadliest virus in the United States. There have been around 31,300 demises in the territory of New York, more than some other state in the nation – New York was additionally the state with the most noteworthy cases of covid-19. The death toll in New York was 31 301, in New Jersey 14 872, in Massachusetts 7 962, in Illinois 6810, etc. Families, companions, associates, friends, and family, and network individuals lament for every individual who has been lost due to this illness. News headlines of different sources also underlined the outcomes of this catastrophe. Example 3. News updates # Even bigger challenges for Jewish burial rituals could lie ahead. In Italy, where the coronavirus has hit hard, funerals for some victims reportedly have been postponed. If the coronavirus death toll grows in the United States or Israel, finding enough volunteers to guard bodies before burial, as Jewish ritual requires, could become difficult (jpost.com, March 20, 2020). 4.4 Isolation The collocates of this category ultimately indexed “isolation” as the only way to alleviate the impact of this deadliest pandemic e.g. the verb collocates (mitigate an influenza pandemic, manage an influenza pandemic, prevent pandemics, fight pandemics, control the pandemic, combat influenza pandemics) are emphasizing on preventive measures of coronavirus. The paramedical staff of every country and also the news channels advised people to maintain social distancing and adopt isolation if they feel symptoms of virus e.g. flu, cough, fever, etc. “Isolation” 1 0 3 2 1 1 7 7 8 1 1 7 9 1 1 6 0 5 1 1 7 3 5 2 2 0 4 6 1 4 4 6 3 9 3 5 5 4 2 9 3 5 2 6 7 2 3 3 9 9 2 2 4 4 2 1 2 7 1 1 1 4 http://www.statista.com/ 100 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 commonly occurs in hospitals to segregate ill patients from healthy one. The room where patients were isolated could be equipped with aerosols to create negative pressure and lessen the transmission of disease. while in the case of SARS CoV control on transmission was achieved without applying negative pressure. But it must be kept in mind that isolation is only effective if the patient is diagnosed at an early stage of the virus (Wilder-Smith and Freedman 2020). Example 4. News updates # The latest figures from the Japanese Health Ministry bring to 621 the number of people on board the ship who have the virus, according to Japanese media. Those testing positive will be taken to isolation facilities or hospitals depending on their level of symptoms, while those who have tested negative are finally being freed. # People whose travel companion contracted the virus have been asked to serve out an additional 14-days quarantine, starting from the date at which their cabin-mate was removed from the ship (washingtonpost.com, March 20, 2020). The news updates delivered a clear concept of isolation upon positive covid-19 results whereas social distancing was compulsory for everyone no matter whether the person’s test was positive or negative. Graph 5. Frequency distribution of “isolation” over time Graph 5. has shown the highest frequency of the word ‘isolation’ (10989 times) on March 21, 2020, Which was a peak time of covid-19 outburst as many died and many were infected with the emerging concept of quarantine. Earlier these words of isolation and quarantine were perceived in a horrible way that people who were infected got more depressed by it rather than by the disease itself. But again, it was the media that stressed this word again and again for the safety of people. Kunst (2020), reportedly surveyed that 69% of participants in the United States maintained social 1314 1452 868 1097 3478 4901 10989 8299 6451 5170 4865 4273 3765 2824 3380 2379 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 Series1 Series2 101 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 distancing after the covid-19 outbreak. The population of the survey was from UK, Germany, and the U. S comprising 2137 participants, and conducting days of the survey were from May 25 to 31, 2020. According to it out of 69% of participants in the United States,77% participants mostly used to stay at home,73% participants used to wash their hands more, 66% wear masks, while going out, 65% avoided restaurants and bars, 62% rarely shopped, 52% rarely traveled, 52% did online shopping, 43% maintained cleanliness at home and 36% lessened the use of cash and public transport. 4. 5. Media’s Contribution The above-mentioned analysis has displayed a general view, but to enrich this research, the two most frequent collocates of pandemic (pandemic occurs, a pandemic caused) are examined in depth by finding out concordance lines. The concordance analysis revealed that after the covid- 19 outbreak entire media was anxious about the occurrence of coronavirus and destruction caused by it. To find out the role of media in portraying the situation of covid-19, 20 concordance lines of both collocates are monitored that revealed that the entire focus of media was to create awareness among people about the alarming situation of a pandemic that burdened paramedical staff and doctors. As it was difficult for them to treat so many patients of the same disease without any vaccine. So people were asked to take preventive measures otherwise viruses could spread everywhere in the world. Hua and Shaw (2020) expressed the media’s role by saying that each episode on media will be joined by a sort of tidal wave of data, yet in addition inside this data you generally have deception, bits of gossip, and so forth. Table 3. Concordances of “Pandemic occurs” If the next pandemic occurs, it is expected that 20% of the global population will become ill, nearly 30 million will be hospitalized and a quarter of these would die within a few months of its attack [ 5 ]. Current stockpiling of antiviral drugs will also be in short supply and their efficiency will be limited once a pandemic occurs. Imagine a new worldwide influenza pandemic occurs and this pandemic reaches the Netherlands Furthermore, in view of an increased world population (two billion in 1918, six billion in 2006) as well as the increased speed and frequency of travel, once a pandemic occurs, the virus will spread rapidly throughout the world, possibly reaching all continents in less than 3 months. 102 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 This information may be modified once a pandemic occurs ) • Fever for four to five days and not starting to get better (or getting worse) The concordance lines in Table 3. have shown that this fact cannot be denied that despite getting awareness to combat against novel coronavirus, people got afraid of it as media aired 24/7 about catastrophic outcomes of this disease. As this disease was declared as a global threat and themes that came out of concordances were fever, influenza, tiredness, dry cough, social distancing, increased infection rate, destruction of the economy, fear and pessimism, the transmission of the virus, and worldwide deaths. But this awareness was also necessary for the healthy lives of people. Therefore, wrecks and havocs of covid-19 were highlighted in concordances so that people take preventive measures. Table 4. Concordances of “pandemic caused” In the event of a pandemic caused by a novel respiratory virus, social distancing is one of the few effective interventions for reducing transmission and infection before vaccines or other prophylactic interventions become available. Many countries have banned groups and gatherings as part of their response to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 The pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in several thousand deaths worldwide in just a few months. The coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses a global threat. We asked how physicians might react if a pandemic caused an increased risk of infection to themselves or their family, and whether they would be willing to continue work as suggested in pandemic plans. The collocates of the word pandemic revealed its severe outcomes globally. As this destruction happened worldwide, so it was the media’s duty to broadcast facts and figures for convincing people to maintain social distancing and take preventive measures. The above concordances have shown true efforts of media that discussed symptoms, number of cases, deaths and safety measures to prevent the disease. Hence, the media’s role was also positive despite just tagging it as the main reason for psychological depression. This fact also cannot be denied that there were many rumors about the origin, transmission, and cure of coronavirus that caused severe 103 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 mental illness among people. As ABBASI (2020), penned down on a web page that Numerous fabulous and dubious cases have been made about covid-19, for example, the infection being delivered as a natural weapon in a lab in China, that it is spread by 5G remote innovation, and even that very rich person, Bill Gates made the illness himself. A portion of these schemes has had genuine results. Many radio towers, thought to convey 5G innovation, have been assaulted and harmed in Britain and the Netherlands. By following these theories people started taking alternative pseudoscience treatments instead of proper medication. Another conspiracy was made regarding Bill Gates and American Pharmaceutical companies that they got profit from this pandemic. But If people want to lessen the impact of these conspiracies then they need to use the most trusted web domains. Deception on the covid-19 illness was abounding in the United States, many Americans believed the government and the mainstream media are the chief perpetrators. Furthermore, a Gallup survey was conducted by Roper (2020) to find out the source that Americans accept is the wellspring of bogus or deluding data on the emergency of a novel coronavirus, The Trump organization was named as the major deceptive on-screen character by 47 percent of respondents. However, Depoux, Martin et al. (2020) stated deceiving bits of gossip and paranoid fears about the source circled the globe matched with Fear, intolerance, and the mass purchase of face veils are all closely linked to the new infodemia. Therefore, in the United States media broadcasted 24/7 about severe outcomes of this outbreak to force people to take preventive measures. As there are always two sides of a coin, so it's true that misinformation took more power and created confusion among the masses. In that case, it was the responsibility of people to use more authentic sources to know about the covid-19 situation. Clement (2020) surveyed on June 18, in the United States, and explored the domain of media, which is tools.usps.com as the most famous government space in June 2020, where there were more than 314 visits in 1 month. Interestingly, during the first multi-day period 107.66 million people visited the website of CDC, during the equivalent interval of time in March 2020. The CDC is the most confessed in the wellspring of data for the U.S, open in regards to the current covid-19 flare-up, trailed by other government and general wellbeing sites. 104 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 4 | ISSUE II| JULY – DEC | 2020 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 Graph 7. Most trusted media sources in the United States This research aimed to check the crucial role played by news media during the covid-19 crisis. As media is the only important source that provides people information about the havoc and crisis of coronavirus. Free news associations assist individuals with understanding the emergency, they even try their level best to help government authorities, and other incredible entertainers to represent how they react to the emergency, both as far as the proficiency of their reaction and regarding how straightforward and honest they were in an emergency. 5 Conclusion The exploration of collocates and concordance lines of media reports, surveys, and broadcasting news in the covid-19 corpus and investigation of frequencies through English Corpora illuminated the crucial role of media in creating awareness among people. As media makes sure that people are informed with quintessential news items to get their trust and the above studies have also shown that a greater percentage trusts media The analysis highlighted the positive and informative role of media and the findings of the study suggested people to develop trust in authentic media sources to prevent mental illness. 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