Deadly Fever

Racism, Disease and a Media Panic

Charles T. Adeyanju

In February 2001, a woman from the Congo was admitted to a hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, with a serious illness of unknown origin. Very quickly, the rumour spread that she was carrying the deadly Ebola virus. Even though it was equally quickly determined that she did not carry the virus, the rumour spread like wildfire throughout the Canadian media. Through a content analysis of four major Canadian newspapers and interviews with journalists, medical practitioners and members of the Black community, Charles T. Adeyanju shows that it was the potent mixture of race, gender and immigration, not a real health problem, that lay at the heart of this public panic.

Contents

The Non-Ebola Panic and Racism • Media and Society • The Media Discourse of Race, Immigration and Health Risks • “The Unrespectable View of Society”: Competing Claims • Community Reaction • Social Inclusion and Racism

About the Author

Charles T. Adeyanju is an Assistant Professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Prince Edward Island.  He holds a PhD from McMaster University, and throughout his career has researched a range of social issues that include: transnational migration, race and ethnicity, social inequality, and media and society. He is currently researching how Nigerian immigrants in Canada may influence their peers and social groups in Nigeria to migrate.  

Excerpt

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