Drawing on borders: a large-scale framing analysis of coronavirus in early UK news maps

Maps are a unique means of combining visual and textual communication, and have been ubiquitous in Covid-19 reporting. This article presents a framing analysis of 4,398 coronavirus-related news maps published across six UK news outlets during the early stages of the pandemic. The authors identified 10 frames: coronavirus was characterized as (1) a national problem; (2) a regional problem; (3) associated with China; (4) an undefined threat; (5) medical; (6) containable; (7) an economic problem; (8) an environmental problem; (9) datafiable; and (10) identifiable. Maps drawing on national boundaries for organizing space were common, often in conjunction with datafication and appeals to the threat posed by the virus. The findings are discussed in the context of representations of infectious disease and of maps as a distinct form of news visuals.