title: Communicating the Ontological Narrative of Ebola: An Emerging Disease in the Time of "Epidemic 2.0".
abstract: In this article, we critically analyze the implications of "Epidemic 2.0"-specifically the formative role of social media (as an exemplar of Web 2.0 technology) in disseminating information during epidemics. We use a narrative analysis framework to study the Ebola-related messaging on the official Facebook pages of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the wake of the recent epidemic in Western Africa. Using as our corpus all the messages on these pages between the period of July 1 and October 15, 2014, our analysis traces the development of an ontological Ebola narrative: a specific, historically contingent, ideological plot that reaffirms contemporary Western anxieties around emerging infections. Our analysis focuses on the evolution of this ontological narrative from a) consulting and containment, to b) an international concern, and c) the possibility of an epidemic in the United States.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Communication , University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Shaunak
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sastry
authors.affiliation: b Department of Political Sciences, Communication Sciences and Information Engineering , University of Sassari , Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lovari
mesh_terms: D000354:Africa, Western / Q000453:epidemiology; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D058872:Epidemics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014943:Global Health; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods; D033262:Narration; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014944:World Health Organization