Özet:

Since the beginning of 2020, cases of the COVID-19 have risen rapidly, more than 150 million people have been affected and more than 2,5 million people have lost their lives. In addition to its impact on global health systems, social life, and the economy, the virus has had impact on the global political discourse. In the United States, change in the discourse has resonated with United States’ former President Donald Trump’s use of the phrase “Chinese virus” in a posted tweet on March 17, 2020. Trump’s association of the virus with a certain nationality had broad repercussion on social media. Following Trump, some conservative politicians and pro-Trump media outlets have used words such as China virus, Chinese virus or Wuhan virus. This study aims to reveal that COVID-19 pandemic has become a practice of “othering” through anti-Chinese discourses that are heavily prominent in the media. Hypothesis is that President Trump has been trying to build a new “othering” discourse against China and he instrumentalized COVID-19 pandemic for the re-construction of the othering discourse. Social constructivist theoretical perspective is used in the study to provide a more extensive perspective to debates that includes social and political discourses emerging from practices.

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