Evolution of Pandemic Discourse: Portrayal of Diseases, Public Healthcare and Culture Anxiety in Pandemic-Themed Film

Abstract

The pandemic-themed film reveals how quickly a virus spreads and kills hundreds or perhaps millions of people. It also highlights the horrible conditions surrounding the outbreak, especially the collapse of the country's healthcare system. The film also depicts the newly discovered infectious sickness as the interconnectedness of animals, the environment, and humans. The pandemic cinema in the past contains attributes such as illegal immigrants, public healthcare, and zoonoses in its narrative conventions. In the present films, the contemporary global issue have encroached on an ignorance on environmental issues among the government, the industry players, and the public on health and the high possibility of viruses spreading due to the activities of industry. This paper aims to assess the evolution of the portrayal of diseases and public healthcare that reflects cultural anxieties in pandemic cinema and what messages that these films convey. After screening seventy films with pandemic themed released within hundred years, only six films were analysed using Altman’s syntax approach. The findings found that, given the current state of the virus, this kind of film encourages viewers to understand pandemics as the result of pathogens attacking social interactions, interpersonal relationships, and other aspects of society.