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East Tennessee State University

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

2018

Biomedicine

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Myths, Risks, And Ignorance: Western Media And Health Experts’ Representations Of Cultures In Ebola-Affected West African Communities, Samson Wonnah May 2018

Myths, Risks, And Ignorance: Western Media And Health Experts’ Representations Of Cultures In Ebola-Affected West African Communities, Samson Wonnah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 2014 Ebola outbreak, mostly affecting Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, is the largest ever recorded. The Ebola response encountered resistance in some affected communities, where some residents accused relief agencies from the Global North of denigrating local cultures. This thesis examines mainstream Western media and health experts’ representation of culture in the Ebola-affected region and employed Foucauldian analysis of discursive power to discuss the impact of such a representation on the concerned communities. Through a content analysis of selected journal and news articles by Western scholars and media and official reports by some relief agencies involved with the Ebola …