Ebola as African: American media discourses of panic and otherization

This virus is not being caused by Africa. --Fatu Gayflor (1) We are Africans. We don't have Ebola as a continent. --Sheriff Bojang (2) Before the 2014 Ebola outbreak, with [...]
The arrival of Kent Brantly and Thomas Duncan in the United States in late summer 2014 marked a shift in American news media's coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak. The media triggered Americans' fear and conceptualization of Ebola as "other" and "African," sparking a discourse of panic and propelling the otherization of Africa and Africans. The othering process led to the stigmatization of Africans living in the United States and those returning from West Africa. This article examines this discourse in American mainstream news and social media from late July to December 2014. It shows how otherization reproduced and perpetuated the Ebola-is-African, Ebola-is-all-over-Africa, and Africa-is-a-country narratives.