Narrativa épica, profesionales de la salud y pandemia: Análisis de medios en Chile y Colombia

Abstract

In this article we analyze how, throughout the first months of the COVID-19, discourses are generated about health professionals based on an ‘epic narrative'. To do this, a media analysis that takes as reference written press in Chile and Colombia is done. The analysis is focused on tropes make up a discursive framework that we call ‘the epic narrative of the health sector'. The results show the emergence of two analytical axes: The first 'The official voice' that raises a series of justifications around the discursive construction of health professionals based on: a) an epic war narrative and b) an epic narrative sporty. The second is ‘the professional voice' that responds critically to the way in which health worked are represented as ‘hero' of the pandemic. Finally, its discussed how the ‘epic narratives' are used by governments to exalt the work of health personnel, while reducing their rights and hiding the precarity of work of this sector.