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Blood Libel Rebooted: Traditional Scapegoats, Online Media, and the H1N1 Epidemic

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Abstract

This study of comments posted on major French print and TV media websites during the H1N1 epidemic illustrates the relationship between the traditional media and social media in responding to an emerging disease. A disturbing “geography of blame” was observed suggesting the metamorphosis of the folk-devil phenomenon to the Internet. We discovered a subterranean discourse about the putative origins and “objectives” of the H1N1 virus, which was absent from the discussions in mainstream television channels and large-circulation print media. These online rumours attributed hidden motives to governments, pharmaceutical companies, and figures of Otherness that were scapegoated in the social history of previous European epidemics, notably Freemasons and Jews.

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Notes

  1. In the context of H1N1, see also Atlani-Duault and Kendall (2009).

  2. The concept of the folk devil was first described in detail by Stanley Cohen in 1972 in his study Folk Devils and Moral Panics. According to Cohen (1972: 9), a moral panic occurs when a “condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests”. See also Wagner-Egger et al. (2011) and their qualitative study of the H1N1 in Switzerland (Public Understanding of Science, 20(4), pp. 461–476), where they define villains as “depicted as untrustworthy and animated by malevolent intentions” (p. 463).

  3. Cf. for example Baromètre annuel des medias “La Croix”-TNS Sofres, which has been conducted on a yearly basis since 1987 by pollster TNS for daily newspaper La Croix. The Internet has been included since 2005, and according to the survey, French people trust TV channels and newspapers more than Internet websites (by 58, 50 and 37 % respectively in 2014).

  4. We attempt to preserve the idiosyncrasies of the French originals by imitating the use of capital letters, abbreviations and by purposefully misspelling some words. The posts are full of typing and spelling errors, with uncertain syntax and outright grammatical errors, which are presented in raw form without any corrections on our part. (The errors in French have been approximated in the English version.).

  5. Such accusations can be traced in France as far back as 1321, when Jews in the Dauphiné and Chinon areas were burned alive after being accused of poisoning wells in order to spread leprosy (Michelet 1837). Subsequently, similar events regularly occurred during times of plague. For example, a number of massacres occurred during the bubonic plague epidemic that ravaged Europe between 1348 and 1351, notably in the region of Strasbourg.

  6. According to Wieviorka, anti-Semitism in France is a form of discourse that functions on many levels, appearing “in a camouflaged manner in public spaces where it is liable to be immediately sanctioned. In private or semi-private it is much less restrained. Though concealed, it continues to circulate freely […] since modern technologies permit discreet propagation, and a high degree of control is not possible” (Wieviorka, 2008: 42).

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was obtained from the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (IMMI)-Programme H1N1 and was conducted under the scientific coordination of Prof. Atlani-Duault. We want to thank I. Bost, G. et L. Dhesse, J.P. Dozon, M. Descieux, A. Elghouayel, T. Frasca, E. Helion, S. Lefebvre, B. Murgue, M. Quéré, A. Siossiac, I. Susser, L. Vidal, M. Wieviorka, and A. Wilson.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Anthropology, IRD-UMR 912 / CNRS-LESC / Hunter-CUNY, Paris, France

    L. Atlani-Duault

  2. Department of Information and Communication, Lorraine University / CREM, Metz, France

    A. Mercier

  3. Department of Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    C. Rousseau

  4. Semiocast, Paris, France

    P. Guyot

  5. Department of Health Economics, Aix-Marseille University - UMR912, Marseille, France

    J. P. Moatti

  6. CUNY Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, 47-49 E 65th Street, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    L. Atlani-Duault

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Atlani-Duault, L., Mercier, A., Rousseau, C. et al. Blood Libel Rebooted: Traditional Scapegoats, Online Media, and the H1N1 Epidemic. Cult Med Psychiatry 39, 43–61 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-014-9410-y

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