THE PECULIARITIES OF COVERAGE OF THE TYPHUS EPIDEMIC IN EASTERN GALICIA (1919–1920s) IN THE UKRAINIAN PRESS

Abstract

The article makes an attempt to elucidate the specificity of coverage of epidemics, specifically the typhus epidemic in the Eastern Galicia during 1919–1920s in the Ukrainian-language interwar press. The object of the research is the Ukrainian mainstream press of Galicia (the social-democratic newspaper Vpered (Lviv) and the Ukrainian émigré press in the USA (the newspaper Svoboda (Jersey City). The study aims to elucidate peculiarities of epidemic communications in the editorial bent of the Ukrainian press, in particular narratives, functional direction, and approaches to the typhus epidemic coverage in different print media. The Research Methodology: bibliographical heuristics, logical methods, functional analysis, diachronic comparative analysis, narrative configuration in qualitative analysis (D. Polkinghorne (1995). The main results/findings: the common and different approaches, narratives and functions in the typhus epidemic coverage have been elucidated on the basis of the analysis of corpus of the West Ukrainian and émigré press. This research shows commonality of informative function as well as divergence of preventive function on the example of the typhus epidemic communications during 1919–1920s by the different Ukrainian periodicals of that time. Research novelty/originality: We have elucidated a focal place of grand-narrative of victimization in the editorial policies of the researched Ukrainian-language press. The conclusions have been drawn and the research avenues have been put forward, in particular in the context of modern media studies of epidemic communications in the Ukrainian media. Keywords: the Ukrainian mainstream press; newspaper; Vpered; Svoboda; the Polish periodicals; coverage; epidemic; typhus; epidemic communications; victimization grand-narrative; 1919–1920s; Eastern Galicia; Poland.