Pandemics, Publics, and Narrative

• Provides rare documentation of lived experience of general publics affected by the 2009 swine flu pandemic
• Establishes an interdisciplinary narrative approach to health communications and public health
• Includes rigorous qualitative interviews with participants both in Scotland and Australia

Research suggests that future influenza pandemics are inevitable as strains of the virus mutate in new ways. With this uncomfortable reality in mind, this book examines how the general public experienced the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus outbreak by bringing together stories about individuals' perception of their illness, as well as reflections on news, vaccination, social isolation, and other infection control measures. The book also charts the story-telling of public life, including the 'be alert, not alarmed' messages from the beginning of the outbreak through to the narratives that emerged later when the virus turned out to be less serious than initially thought.

Providing unprecedented insight into the lives of ordinary people faced with the specter of a potentially lethal virus and drawing on currents in sociocultural scholarship of narrative, illness narrative, and narrative medicine, Pandemics, Publics, and Narrative develops a novel 'public health narrative' approach of interest to health communicators and researchers across the social and health sciences.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Pandemic tales
Chapter 3. 'Be Alert, Not Alarmed'
Chapter 4. Contagion
Chapter 5. Immunity
Chapter 6. Vulnerabilities
Chapter 7. News Media Hype?
Chapter 8. 'The boy who cried wolf' and other post-trust stories
Chapter 9. Conclusion
Appendix: Participants Who Appear in the Text
References