The image of dying and death during the pandemic in the media

Abstract

The topic of the article is a visual image of dying and death related to the COVID-19 pandemic on the example of selected media discourses: news portal, conspiracy theories, Internet memes. The aim of the text is to show the semiotic and functional features of the visual depiction of death. Initial considerations concern the anthropological and rhetorical meaning of the topos of death as well as the role and types of pandemic discourses in history and today. In the research part, the structure of the media image of death, its varieties and functions depending on the discourse were analyzed.