Framing of Opinion Leaders' COVID-19 Stance(s) on society

Abstract

Using framing as a springboard and critical discourse analysis as the methodology, this chapter aims to conduct a thoroughgoing exegesis of two speeches that were made by Oppah Muchinguri between the 14th of March 2020 and the 16th of January 2021. This chapter seeks to critically explain the influence of social, political, religious, and cultural factors on opinion leaders' attitude to COVID-19 and show the extent to which they represent perceptions of Zimbabweans regarding the virus and what should be prioritized between privacy of journalists' sources and the public interest. The chapter also adds to the huge corpus of studies on society's conceptualization of COVID-19 and urges stakeholders to avoid unsubstantiated claims and to use their influence to rally behind experts' advice in dealing with the pandemic.