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Swine flu in
Swine flu in Buenos Aires: beyond Buenos Aires
the principle of resilience
Maximiliano E. Korstanje
Department of Economics, University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina 59
Abstract
Purpose – Throughout April/May of 2009 a new type of virus surfaced in Mexico and the USA,
denominated H1N1 or swine flu, that has been immediately disseminated worldwide. Even though the
mortality of this virus has been slow, comparing with other antecedents, the mass-media articulated a
troublesome discourse that put the world in tenterhooks waiting for the evolution of the symptoms.
Emulating the mythical archetype of what we knew as Spanish flu, which affected more than 50 million
people during 1918 and 1920, journalism triggered panic in the four corners of the world. Under such a
context, the purpose of this paper is to explore the connection between the coverage of mass-media and
press of swine flu in Buenos Aires (Argentina), and how the principle of resilience in this conjuncture works.
Design/methodology/approach – In order to understand this issue in an all-encompassed manner,
the author conducted ethnography in Buenos Aires during April to June of 2009 combining informal with
formal interviews and analysis of contents extracted of press coverage. It is important to mention that the
role of observer was hidden to capture vividly the social behaviour as long as a context of health
emergency.
Findings – The findings of this research reveal that fear becomes an efficient instrument to keep the
status quo in context of disasters. In addition, it is important to clarify that virtual disasters do not
permit societies to learn of their tragedies and affects considerably their abilities for resilience.
Research limitations/implications – Unfortunately, there is no abundant literature to support the
outcomes of the present paper in respect to swine flu. Beyond ethical boundaries of journalism, the point
of discussion, here, seems to be whether news should be edited or transmitted in rough during a moment
of uncertainty. As a whole, the debate is circumscribed to non-edited news which can result in
uncontrollable society response, while edited news jeopardizes the freedom of the press.
Originality/value – This paper provides an original point of view that contrasts the thesis of
Baudrillard in respect to the spectacle of disaster. The panic disseminated by media blurs the boundaries
between culprit and innocence presenting to the poorest sectors as the main concerns of society. That way,
the earlier imbalances that allowed the disasters are replicated once again. In contrast with Baudrillard,
this paper considers that Swine flu really took place and was something other than a show. An event like
this, elaborated and commercialized is of course, aimed at reinforcing the legitimacy of privileged groups.
Keywords Argentina, Ethnography, Mass media, Communicable diseases, Fear
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Even though specialized literature has emphasized that mass-media plays a pivotal role
in dissemination of information in moments of disaster (Hovland, 1953; Freidson, 1953;
Klapper, 1963; Wenger and Friedman, 1986; Quarantelli, 1982; Tierney, 1994;
Quarantelli, 1990; Dahlhamer and Nigg, 1994; Paul et al., 2003; Beck, 2006; Mileti,
1999; Nigg, 1995; Rodriguez et al., 2004), journalism seems to enhance fear and
excitement in lay-people by means of distorting fundamental information (Fritz and International Journal of Disaster
Mathewson, 1957; Dynes, 1970, 1998, 1999). Following some previous developed ideas of Resilience in the Built Environment
Vol. 2 No. 1, 2011
E.L. Quarantelli regarding the merge of old and new disasters, it is important to think in pp. 59-73
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
a new typology of disasters. This paper explores the relationship between mass-media 1759-5908
with the spectacle of catastrophe, an event that never took place in reality. Terrorism, DOI 10.1108/17595901111108371
IJDRBE virus outbreaks, and others new postmodern apocalyptic disasters represent a new
2,1 much broader type of experiencing the uncertainness (Quarantelli, 2006). Underpinned
in a definition of resilience as “an internal capacity to overcome hard situations that
bends the ability of community to survive and learns about events”, our main thesis is
that swine flu’s coverage of mass-media was functional to privileged groups which
manipulated the fear in their own interests. In contrast with Baudrillard, we strongly
60 believe although the event really existed, the panic disseminated by media blurs the
boundaries between culprit and innocence presenting to poorest sectors as the main
concerns of society. That way, the earlier imbalances that allowed the disasters are
replicated. The present viewpoint research presents the outcomes of part of ethnography
conducted in Buenos Aires during April and July of 2009. Because of space limitations
only few interviews can be transcribed in this work considering this only an exploratory
case that merited to be continued at a latter day. The qualitative nature of employed
methodologies and the small sample does not permit any kind of generalization.

The fear of dying in late-capitalism

With greater or lesser degree, the advent of new millennium brings other unexpected
consequences. To the best of knowledge, advances in fields of technology and production
seem to be accompanied with phenomena enrooted in fears, panic and inflation of risks.
At the time, societies achieve their goals and sets other news creates news types of risk
which were not expected in due course. As a result of this, an inflation of risk wreaks havoc
in the social net declining the liaison and trust among citizens (Castel, 2006; Bauman, 2008).
The point here seems to be that whereas the protection demands rise, environment starts
to be potentially perceived as more hostile than other times. Conversely, Beck considers
that fears surface whenever the risks are trivialized. Unlike medieval travelers, who
evaluated personal risks before departing, a new form of living the adventure is being
surfacing in belated capitalism. Beyond the possibilities of individual reaction, these
dangers are represented as global, catastrophic and chaotic involving a major part of
societies regardless the class, patrimonies or wealthy the citizen has. The current hazards
are implicitly derived from a product of the economic development but sooner or later the
accumulated risks give place to real dangers which jeopardize the stability of system
(Beck, 2006).
With this background in mind, A. Giddens contends that the modernity can be
equaled in certain degree to the notion of industrialization. Both are part of a broader
process of labor organization and material production power (commoditization).
Nevertheless, unlike industrialism, modernity created a new political and economical
form of institution: nation-state. Tradition order here contrasts with the logic of
nation-states because of two reasons:
(1) a new way to perceive the space and time in social imaginary; and
(2) the needs of monopolizing the usage of violence in certain territory.

Geopolitical monitoring tradition in convergence with a new form of conceptualizing

the site gives the rise of a new form re-organization (Giddens, 1991).
One might realize that global warming, surfaced in recent years, can be contemplated
with serious concerns by scientifics and scholars of five continents because its effects are
unpredictable and of course, a serious challenge for developing countries. Although
global warming is not liable of all human calamities, one might think on the possibility
new viruses, tropical outbreaks and illnesses will be expanded from tropic towards both Swine flu in
poles. Most surely, there is a significant increase of natural disasters from 1980 up to date Buenos Aires
to the extent we have to reconsider whether the term natural disaster would be adequate
under these circumstances (Hayles, 2010). Following Aguirre’s accounts, Afedzie and
Mc-Entire bring into question that sustainable development applied on reconstruction
after disaster represents an intellectual product of north to expand its domination over
south. With basis of ideological beliefs, sometimes scholars confuse the resilience by 61
development. From Afedzie and Mc-Entire’s perspective, communities should develop a
strong self-sufficiency to face emergencies and states of disasters. To put this in brutally,
whereas the development leads societies towards a state of emergency or at least into a
situation of downright inequality which potentiates the disaster effects, the resilience
can be conceptualized as a proper strength helps involved actors overcoming obstacles
and adversities (Afezdie and Mc-Entire, 2010).

Understanding postmodern disasters

Ethimologically, J. Murria considers that the word disaster, a term widespread in
English and Spanish comes from dis which connotes a negation and astrum that means
star. That way, one might speculate disaster refers to an ongoing state of disgrace
determined by stars. To some extent, this meaning is broadly present in almost all
romances languages as Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese and of course, in English
simply because this idiom has some shared word from Latin. Otherwise, Norse
languages prefer to take from Greek Katastrophe (kata þ strephein) which means
“an overturning or a sudden end” (Murria, 2004). This would explain the prone of
English and Spanish native speakers prone to utilize the word disasters in their
investigations while Germans run by other ways.
Conceptually, one might consider that the notion of disaster or emergency connote
the creation of certain hazards that exceed the capacity of each society to respond
proactively by mitigating their aftermaths. Disasters are often characterized to break
the routine of a community. This point suggests the vulnerability (as other associated
term) of residents depends on the following key factors:
(1) the position of victims in the hierarchal stratification;
(2) the geographical location of involved community;
(3) the degree of development of affected societies; and
(4) to determine we are in presence of a disaster the situation should be out of
control for authorities (Nigg, 1996).

The journalism often plays a crucial role in alarming the population about the effects of
disasters. This role has been historically enrooted in the inception of this discipline.
Certainly, there were two other previous disasters that marked the commitment of
journalism in these types of issues. G. Mairal is strongly convinced that the hurricane
which in 1,705 devastated the coast of Great Britain and plague in 1,655 were events which
not only impacted in the core of social imaginary but also committed Daniel Defoe,
a Journalist, to introduce a new genre of literature, “the narrative of risk” successfully by
combining the “germ of sensationalism” with a description of events. The Defoe’s writings
were aimed at focusing on the creativity and objectivity. He thought that as journalist his
fictional texts should mitigate or at least prevent the disasters at a latter day (Mairal, 2008).
IJDRBE One of our main concerns about the performance of journalism in contexts of disasters
2,1 or emergencies is associated to a supposed lack of fairness at the time of disseminating the
involving news. Of course, this does not seem an exclusivity of journalism but this is one of
their most characteristic traits. The dilemma here is to determine what role play
mass-media in moments of uncertainness. For some scholars, journalism should report
what they are seeing at once the event is occurring without editing whereas for others there
62 seems to be a tight boundary between morality and efficiency. To some extent, Klaidman
and Beauchamp argue what is true for non-specialist are in certain conditions unreadable;
ethically speaking, for other hand, journalism is not obliged to inform the whole truth as an
expert often does. News containing serious harm to persons must be discarded. Unlike
scientist whose duties are related to report events as they are no matter than the patient
accepts – or not – the diagnosis, journalists must contemplate in depth potential
consequences of their profession. Starting from the premise that in contexts of uncertainty
lay persons need to know further, reporters play a crucial role in shaping the
understanding. Nevertheless, it is unquestionable the fact that they inadvertently creates a
social discourse aimed at enhancing fear and panic (Klaidman and Beauchamp, 1987).
Nowadays, a wider body of knowledge devotes considerable attention in the study of
post-disaster recovery process. Resilience, solidarity, monetary assistance and
government intervention play a crucial role in the rebuilding of a site affected by a
tornado, a flood or even an earthquake (Hannigan, 1976; Baisden and Quarantelli, 1979;
Connell, 2001). Disasters and rebuilding accompany humanity since the immemorial
times. However, the advent of a new millennium brought to us a new type of facing the
threats characterized by the following elements:
.
disasters run across the nation-states and involves various nets;
.
the hazard widespread rapidly but disappear overnight;
.
the risks and threats are potentiated not only by the performance of mass-media
but also by the industry of tourism and international flight which connects two
geographical points in few hours;
.
these types of events are magnified and create an unprecedented panic flight; and
.
traditional responding organization for disasters turn inadequate for these new
events.

New actors and virtual organizations as chatters, or virtual communities surface in the
outbreak of an unknown virus (Quarantelli, 2006).
As the previous argument given, S. Zizek argues that late-capitalism exerts
considerable violence over citizenships manipulating the figure of sovereignty and
bio-power enrooted in the principle of shortage and uncertainty. The bourgeois culture
characterizes by an excess of instrumentalism and rationalization and of course, by the
spectacle of victimization. For that reason, the symbolic imposition of meaning
constitutes as the primary form of violence that west cynically exerts over the rest of
globe. Charity, sympathy and victimization play an important role in order for elite to
maintain their status quo. The shocking for disasters, calamities and tragedies prevent
people to understand the real causes which ushered into a situation of such a nature.
The horror of violence rests on what cannot be said. In this vein, academician’s thesis
become in ideological discourses not necessarily for what they stress but for what they
silenced. Ideology works as a dream, whereas the surface remains credible, the core
is false. The notion of false urgency seems to be coined in observance of the last natural Swine flu in
and made-man disaster ranging from the current Haiti’s earthquake or Katrina’s Buenos Aires
hurricane in USA. Whenever, these types of tragic events whipped to poorer sector of the
society, people donated their own properties in assistance of victims or survivors. It is
not surprising to see a considerable volume of financial assistance has been bestowed to
peripheral countries in moment of human emergency but far away of reversing the
miserable conditions these countries stand, these types of campaigns reinforces the 63
financial dependence that potentiated the crippling aftermaths of disaster. Concerns of
corporations for well-being and charity are aimed at enhancing their own profits.
Nowadays, by consuming certain products, one may contribute to scramble with
poverty in Africa or Latin America. In foregoing, not only the poverty persists but also
potentiate the appalling aftermaths of natural and made-man disasters (Zizek, 2009).
In addition, by defying the traditional concept of resilience, Lewis and Kelman argue
that specialized literature should consider resilience as something more than a simple
capacity to overcome adversities or hard situations. Not accepted before than 1990, this
term bespeaks to an inevitable return to previous disaster conditions, even to a state of
vulnerability. If this is the case, resilience seems to be a more troublesome phenomenon
than usually assumed (Lewis and Kelman, 2010).

Journalism and the spectacle of disasters

Based on understanding how are constructed the mythical archetype of modern
mass-consumption, Baudrillard’s contributions ranges from political comprehension of
war to visual issues related to mass-media performance in the culture of postmodernity.
In accordance with Castel, Baudrillard contends that the postmodernity is eroding the
basis of hierarchal authority. The rise of fear ranging from a natural disaster to a
terrorist attack can be understood as a fact that never took place; in other terms, as a form
of entertainment which indoctrinates consumers. The postmodern disasters
characterize by the lack of victims and a process of reconstruction (Baudrillard,
1995a, pp. 20-4, 1995b, 2006). Let first clarify readers that in middle age disasters were
intellectualized as a form of divine punishment while in modern era are a result of
human’s intervention. This means exactly that in past disasters were certainly opened to
God’s wish reinforcing the trust between people and their ancestors, in our times,
disasters seem to be determined by the principle of contingency triggering fear and
panic. Centered on the belief any disaster can be avoided, humankind believes science
and technology are sufficient tools to prevent situation of emergencies. This way of
thinking places people in a sentiment of paranoia endless and finally virtualizes the
resilience (understood this as a form of learning from unexpected catastrophes).
Centered on a historical background by respecting to the role played by Disaster
Research Center from 1950 to today, Mcneil and Quarantelli introduce a brief summary
of most important research in disaster fields. This article is aimed at discussing
the contributions and limitations found in interdisciplinary studies of disasters.
As individual entities, human beings are circumscribed to a society and community.
Disasters whatever their nature may be, affect communities and change their
perspective along with a future similar event. Macneil and Quarantelli classify their
review in five important parts:
(1) community disasters;
(2) individual behavior;
IJDRBE (3) organizational behavior;
2,1 (4) community behavior; and
(5) mass communication systems.

Following this line of reasoning, many investigators agree that in some post-impact
situations most of victims show characteristic related to irritability, anxiety or
64 sleeplessness. For other hand, Western societies are characterized by certain tendency to
apply primary knowledge in the prevention of potential disasters (McNeil and Quarantelli,
2008). However, one might realize that Panic is part of the society. Following the
contributions of E. Durkheim in the study of crime, E. Quarantelli (2001, p. 9) argues that
panic is the necessary prerequisite in order for society to reinforce its procedures,
institutions and moral values. An interesting recent research conducted by Rodriguez et al.
(2004, p. 13) found that in case of disaster there is a relationship between ethnicity and
vulnerability because the minorities not only are more vulnerable but also are less likely to
abide by instructions in cases of urgencies than other groups.
By exploring the narrative of risk in case of Avian Flu, Mairal accepts mass-media
and journalism emulate a mythical archetype of disaster shortening the distance
between the subject and object. The chain created by the convergence of risk and fear can
be explained by means of the linkage between “an object of” and “an object at”. The gap
determines the expectancies of individuals and the collection of information to avoid the
danger. The realism encouraged by journalism operates by blurring the boundaries
between the proximity and experience. For that reason, the narrative of disasters can be
reformulated in terms of matrices wherein journalism introduces a strong perception of
risk as feasible in our day-to-day life. The emerging of Avian flu, in this light, emulated
the archetype of Spanish flu. In sharp contrast with Baudrillard who emphasized that
post-modernity contributed to the creation of the spectacle of disasters, the main thesis
of Mairal (2008) is that whenever information about certain catastrophes is scant,
peoples recur to orchestrate previous antecedents of similar events.
Disaster management literature does hesitate to point out that communication
should be considered a key factor at time of mitigating the disaster’s effects or rescuing
survivors (Patricelli et al., 2009). Nevertheless, less attention was given to the fact how
sometimes the existent infrastructure in communication does not respond proactively
as expected in practice. Under this conjuncture, journalism and mass-media play a
pivotal role in the process of warning and the reconstruction after the disaster.
Waxman (1972) provided enough evidence to affirm gate-keeping process is not being
followed by reporters in moments of panics generating inadvertently unexpected
aftermaths. With more similarities than difference, Quarantelli and Wenger examine
the impact of two natural disasters in the USA and Japan as well as the response of
journalism in each case. One of first things both have in common is that disaster are
dealt with as most important news stories at the time they happened. For other hand, in
both countries electronically media web site support is constantly consulted in order
for audience to access to information. By respecting to differences, researchers go on to
argue that altruism finds a major presence in Japanese society rather than American.
The extensive assistance given to local radio station as long as the Tsunami disaster in
Nagasaki by all other media corporation of Japan is evidently inverse with the USA
wherein journalism is certainly characterized by competition in generating the own
stories in detriment of other local stations (Quarantelli and Wenger, 1989).
Mythical archetype of disasters Swine flu in
The Spanish flu killed 40,000 million of persons in the world from 1918 to 1920 while Buenos Aires
Asian flu did the same with 1.5 million. To a major or lesser degree, the classic
influenza had more virulence than swine flu but the latter was dramatically labeled as
an apocalyptic pandemic with unpredictable consequences for humanity. On April 28,
the American newspaper New York Times headlined “the new Swine Flu” alarming to
the audience for an uncanny outbreak of a new virus supposedly originated in Mexico 65
which originally had killed 150 persons. One of more impacting lines of this column
was written in form of questions:
Is the new swine flu virus that has killed many people in Mexico and has spread to the United
States and other countries the start of a much feared pandemic?. Or is this yet another false
alarm – the latest in a long history of worrying that some day a hugely lethal flu strain might
sweep through the World and kill tens of millions of people, much as it did in 1918-1919?
(New York Times, 2009a, b).
There was in the precedent excerpt a new element as Quarantelli argued, a mythical
archetype of other more powerful virus. The question as to what extent swine flu can
be comparable with the appalling Spanish flu created a sentiment of uncertainness in
readers. The column, additionally, emphasized on:
[. . .] back in 1918, when the deadly Spanish influenza hit New York, the city had more than a
few disadvantages, compared with the current situation. Overcrowding was rampant, the
course of disease unclear. The Malady is being fought principally with sunshine and fresh air,
said one article in the New York Times soon after it reported the illness struck in late summer
(New York Times, 2009a, b).
What precedes validates the hypotheses of Beck (2006), Giddens (1991), Baudrillard
(2006) and Castel (2006) to the extent one may realize the idea that nobody feel safe in any
place and any longer is present in the examined newspaper’s coverage. A second point of
entry in the discussion of swine flu has been the quest for rational explanations when
“good” vulnerable actors died. Let clarify readers first that the presence of death emerges
as a mechanism to create indoctrination, identity and affiliation. This can be seen in
many of the examined columns. Mass-media reproduces a previous existing logic of
discrimination based on the binomy the USA/Mexico. The fear of a whole part of
American citizenship was “that the virus which has killed many people in Mexico passed
to the USA as an illegal immigrant”. Of course, not only the spirit of superiority and
ethnocentrism still remain and these types of outbreaks but also it are often potentiated
by the way of perceiving the outsiders (Quarantelli, 2006). One of the fearful aspects
what more concern wakes up in population seems to be the protection of our children.
The lamentable death of one baby inside American soil was covered by the British
newspapers The Independent (2009) as follows:
“US baby dies as new Spanish case raises swine flu alarm”. “An US government official said a
23-month-old child in southern state had died from the virus. A health official said the baby
was a resident of Mexico”.
Specifications relating to the nationality of this baby or place of residence are
unimportant, however, emphasis on the residency of victim allow alleviating the fear of
social imaginary in the USA. Similar treatment received a death of a baby three
month old in Argentina on June 16. However, in this case the source of contagion still
IJDRBE remains unknown. Authorities are disconcerted by respecting to where she can be
2,1 infected but assume the baby had different pulmonary problems in view of the
premature condition of her birth. Since her family had never stood outside of
Argentina, experts preclude H1N1 is being now circulated throughout the population.
After this news is disseminated thru magazines, TV programs and talk shows,
Officials declared the closure of many schools in Buenos Aires and outskirts (Valeria,
66 2009). It is as though fear opens a door between the ontological security of self and
social discrimination of those who are not part of community. The principle of
hospitality, which characterizes the international trade among nations, can be broken
into various pieces whenever fear surfaces.

The swine flu in Buenos Aires

Table I shows Argentina occupies the third position in the ranking of countries with
more cases of swine flu detected before Mexico and the USA. Statically, the Argentine
Ministry of Health recognized the ciphers of World Health Organization (WHO).
During the first two month, from a total of 18,300 confirmed cases, died only 185.
However, the successive months, the government did not publish new ciphers. For that
reason, the statistics of this epidemic was blurred in terms of the recommendations of
the WHO. Informal sources estimated that the numbers of infected person have
substantially aroused to half million people or more.
In circumstances of extreme angst and uncertainness the avoidance of strangers
seems to be an adequate measure to offset the psychological order of subject; similar
remarks can be done for a society whenever feels itself in danger (Freud, 1994). This
happened for example when the Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
decided to cancel all flights inbound and outbound Mexico, a one-sided decision
contested by the president of Mexico as discriminatory and less effective to mitigate the
virus. This episode was covered as Clarin putting emphasis on Facebook and virtual
Forums where started circulating messages of condemn against Argentines because of
obstacles placed to the commerce with Mexico (Heguy, 2009). On the same edition but in
page 20, Carolina Burstein collects a bunch of statements of Mexicans with residency in

Country Infected Victims Mortality

USA 24,439 134 0.54

Mexico 8,279 116 1.40
Argentina 1,391 23 1.65
Canada 6,832 21 0.30
Chile 5,186 8 0.15
Australia 3,280 3 0.09
Colombia 73 2 2.73
Guatemala 254 1 0.39
UK 3,597 1 0.02
Spain 541 0 0
Germany 333 0 0
France 191 0 0
Table I. China 1,088 0 0
Infected and victims
by country Source: WHO, May 2009, Wikipedia, Swine flu
Buenos Aires who stated having experienced a subtle discrimination because of swine Swine flu in
flu dissemination (Brunstein, 2009). However, at the same time, she reminds how in Buenos Aires
streets of Buenos Aires Mexicans received daily support from lay-people as a gesture of
solidarity. La Nacion newspapers headlined on the top cover, “Argentine Government
cancel polemically all flights to Mexico”. In view of these lines, this column focuses on
Ministry of Health reports which said that no cases of swine flu were found in Argentina.
The fear of being infected plays a pivotal role in the configuration of social imaginary 67
and of course, the way how selfhood connects with otherness. The process of ideology
found by Korstanje (2010) in his study of how mass-media covered the outbreak
of Dengue explains that nationalism as well as religion allows alleviating the burden of
uncertainty people experience. What can be said in this context is that the sentiment of
neighborhood prevails over egoism whether the security of self is jeopardized (Erikson,
1994; Quarantelli, 2006; Afezdie and Mc-Entire, 2010). With the benefits of hindsight, the
rest of facts are known. The swine flu arrived in may at Argentina and triggered the
renounce of Health Ministry G. Ocaña who had been broadly criticized by a supposedly
inactive during the outbreak of Dengue in former months. Other side of political conflicts
was the discussion between Mauricio Macri a staunch opponent to Front for Victory and
President Cristina F. de Kirchner along with the next step to coordinate by mitigating the
effects of swine flu alongside the country. Far away of achieving a temporal consensus
among politicians, the flu stimulated a much broader political dispute. The former
precisely criticized the latter having cancelled the flights to Mexico instead of
articulating a fast plan of emergency for population for mitigating the aftermaths of
virus. A couple of weeks latter, however, Mauricio Macri and his collaborators have been
strongly questioned for occulting vital information about the number of cases of infected
people during the pandemic. As a result of this, certainly mass-media were the only
sources people had for being informed. The fact was that the mass-media gave an
ambiguous coverage of this event because for one hand, it gave considerable emphasis
on the practical rules and procedures suggested by health organizations such as:
(1) washing the hands on a daily basis;
(2) do not use mouth-guard if one is not infected;
(3) in case of fever one should consult immediately to a doctor; and
(4) do not kiss or embrace people under any circumstance.

For the other, mass-media triggered the panic at time of disseminating negative news
containing information related to the following points:
(1) the lack of a cure or vaccine against swine flu;
(2) the vulnerability of pregnant women and children with serious risk of death in
case of infection;
(3) the term pandemic were often associated to the idea of an apocalyptic virus; and
(4) mass-media stressed the ineffective steps and decision made by government to
mitigate the advance of this virus.

One of the headlines of Clarin published the commentaries of WHO warning about the
unpredictability of swine flu evolution. Citing higher director of WHO sources, the new
pointed out that the consequences of this new mutated virus are unforeseeable for
IJDRBE the moment. The world passed from facet three to four (of a total of six) at time the
2,1 virus entered in the USA and Asia. The unpredictability was strongly associated to the
fact this virus can gain strength with the passing of days whether find and mutate with
other local viruses. For that reason, it is important to maintain the calm but monitor
daily how this virus envelops. Besides, the reporter considers the rapidity of infection,
urban sprawl and demographic agglomeration are factors that do not help in
68 mitigating the advance of swine flu. The journalist outlined that this reality seemed to
be practically whether the virus enter to developing countries in third world wherein
the lack of economic resources, the higher degree or problem in nutrition, and
infrastructures will be impotent to constrain the darkest side of new virus. Of course,
here the poverty plays an important role as other secondary form of intellectualizing
the virtual disaster. The political discourse clearly emphasizes on the following
message “we will die because we are poor, of course, the poverty is implicitly
responsible for the dissemination of flu”.
However, in Argentina were not the poorest sectors of society who disseminated the
flu but precisely the richest ones because they had access to abroad where this virus
emerged. The Argentine high-class accustomed to fly abroad to the USA and Mexico on
a weekly basis was the hosting group that introduced this virus in Argentina. First cases
of infections were found in the boroughs of San Isidro, Belgrano, Palermo (situated
geographically northwards Buenos Aires) where aristocracy resided. For one or other
reason, this point remained occulted for the whole programs and newspapers. Rather,
newspapers emphasized a serious preoccupation for the potential effects of this disease
on those sectors that live daily under the limits of poverty. Here, the moot point was that
the process of resilience (the lessons left by Dengue, a previous virus surfaced in summer
of the same year) has not provided to government a framework or guidelines for
managing the effects of swine flu. Lay-people in streets not only was terrified but also
subways and schools were empty. The most immediate effects of panic were the collapse
of hospitals and health system. For precaution, thousand of persons went to hospitals for
further consult at time of having fever or similar symptoms for suspecting one has been
infected. This frenetic behavior overloaded the system with false emergencies. What
remain as more important of this experience have been the fear people in streets, works
and other public sites. The following two interviews tape-recorded during the pandemic
were more than illustrative.
Jose (42 years old, male) supports the government and the policies accomplished to the
moment. He is married, has one boy five years old and showed panic at time of thinking in
his child turns infected of swine flu some day. One of his more terrible concerns is related to
the fact his boy dies. Jose does not hesitated to wash his hands more than six times in the
day to the extent to develop a dermatitis on his skin because the action of alcohol. During
the four weeks endured the quarantine disposed by government wherein schools, and
public spaces were temporarily closed, Jose called to home more than ten times per day.
This obsession was exemplified in the following fragment:
If you ask me, I do not care being infected of Swine Flu now but of course, I am terrified for
my son. I heard on Television and read different newspapers to acquire information about
these recent events; one of the things I cannot understand is how there are cases wherein
youth people die. This virus kill you in few days and there is nothing we can do to avoid it, no
vaccine is available now because the greed and the corruption of laboratories. They are
responsible for that. This is an invention of laboratories to sell their products. I can think
 neither for one moment this virus knock the doors of my home. I feel home is the only place Swine flu in
where I can be safe but I do not bear this situation anymore, I am in alarming for more than
4 weeks and nothing happens really. If I have to die, well go ahead God but my agony relates Buenos Aires
to be always in a distressing situation!. The fear is expanding as though all time no body, in
no place can be felt safe. I need this ends now. We are doing the thing bad, God is outrage and
this is a punishment man, we are living the bottom-days. I saw on television a program
wherein different prophecies as Nostradamus, Mayas, and other civilization pointed out the
world will end in 2012; this is more than entertainment for populace this is real, I am scared. 69
This interview reflects what Baudrillard, and Giddens observed respecting to the
spectacle of disaster (it often works as a mechanism of social and inter-class
indoctrination). These types of virtual events have never taken place in reality but
heavily stimulated not only the consumptions of products as mouth-guards, or alcohol
for disinfection, but also a long angst. One of pre-conditions of these emotions seems to
be the security of children but in terms of Erikson first the prolonged uncertainty.
Furthermore, Jose is impressed by the faster action of this new virus on a range of
population which is often sane. Conspiracy and apocalyptic paranoia can be seen in this
narrative along with the following aspects:
.
god is annoyed with human beings due to their sin and arrogance; and
.
the swine flu should be intellectualized as a punishment to sublimate or expiate
the culprits.

The other testimony is, rather, channeled in other direction. Adrian (38 years old, male)
lives in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, he had a daughter of six years old. Like Jose, he is
fright for this situation but considers swine flu has been an experimentation of the USA
to eradicate the resistance in the fight against terrorism in Middle East and of course,
they will propone a cure whether the disease continues its expansion. As the films,
Adrian theorizes that this virus escaped of laboratories by mistake and combined in a
pig with other influenzas. One of the evidence, Adrian handles, is the fact the virus came
up in Mexico by first time, a neighboring country limiting with the USA. In terms of
Douglas, Adrian follows the typology of hierarchies at the time of supposing the USA as
a global power will prevent the expansion of swine flu. Conversely, as egalitarian Jose
trivializes the intervention of other country in mitigating the pandemic effects. Adrian
goes overtly on to admit that:
US is liable for the upsurge of Swine Flu. They were testing a bio-nuclear weapon to eradicate
Taliban and terrorists. Surely, this was an error or a manipulation of laboratories. I am
confident US will stop this virus whenever they feel in hazard. Our government showed its
inefficiency in controlling the situation. People in streets are scared and paranoiac. Figure out,
the trains, bus and subways are empty, people dress mouth-guard, I have never seen
anything like this before. There is no solidarity, each one protect and cares for his/her family
and no more. We are living timing times, if possible this would be a sign of apocalypses, but I
have no doubt this apocalypses is fabricated by US. It is important that journalists should
play other role, they are so frightful like us, I am fed up once and once again they transmit
news cynically describing how our children die. I strongly thought the influenza was a virus
attacked historically elderly persons, I never saw a virus like this that threatens children from
4 to 12 years old. I think in my daughter and experience panic.
Undoubtedly, expectances of Jose and Adrian differ but both keep similar patterns in their
discourse. They are concerned the swine flu attacks their relative, above all their children.
IJDRBE The tenderness and love we often feel for our children become in an appalling sentiment
2,1 of self-destruction. Ones might think in the suicide for overcoming the situation while
others put emphasis on the declination of otherness trust. This aspect plays an important
role in the intellectualization of virtual disaster and contrasts the previous finding
of Erikson. To put this in bluntly, we can realize that in context of virtual disasters,
the solidarity in neighbors decline since individuals isolate themselves at home. Politically
70 speaking, whereas Jose does not claim the Argentine Government Adrian deems
the officials are the main responsible for the lack of psychological contention before
what both label as a sign of end of world. Other discrepancy among these testimonies is
that Jose feels swine flu is irreversible whilst Adrian is confident in the global power of
the USA.
It is important ultimately not to loose the sight on the importance of inter-class
prejudice which not only reinforces the previous imbalances that makes the disaster
possible but also generates a political indoctrination where poverty is presented as a
synonymous of vulnerability. Simplifying the message: “people die because they are
poor”, mass-media upends the degree of responsibilities in disasters. As previously
noted, whether the high-class was responsible for introducing the swine flu in
Argentina, poorest sectors absorbed the cost. Mass-media emphasized on the role
played by poverty in the dissemination (out of control) of this pandemic. This means
that whenever a state of emergency surfaces, the societies elaborate not only their own
explanations (which almost always are functional to status quo) but their own
goat-escape to keep the order. To put this in bluntly, the vulnerability seems to be one
of such pretexts. It is safe to say that virtual disasters are the end of resilience simply
because they blurs the boundaries between innocence and culprits facilitating the
previous conditions that engulfed lay-people to the situation of emergency. This
represents a serious challenge and threat for the process of learning and resilience of
every society to prevent a new disaster in future. It is more than important to
reconsider this point at least one more time.

Conclusions
The present paper has explored not only how journalism react in context of
emergencies but also the diversity of fears it enhances. One can speculate that
journalism as many other sectors are sensible to the experience and deep emotions
people feel in lapses of disasters. Alternating different theses in multidisciplinary way,
we focused on the coverage of press and TV programs of swine flu in Buenos Aires as
well as the implicit or explicit effects on day-to-day audience’s life. The future of swine
flu in Argentina and the rest of the world seem to be unknown. To here, we have
synthesized four months of field work according to the main physical and
psychological consequences of this new virus in Buenos Aires. Combining different
qualitative methodologies, the present paper examined in the political roots of fear as
well as the manipulation of elite for replicating the conditions that ushered people to
disaster. It is important to clarify that virtual disasters does not permit societies to
learn of their tragedies and affects considerably their abilities for resilience. However,
this does not mean necessarily that virtual disasters engender the end of resilience as
Baudrillard put it. The process of learning in a society seems to be associated with their
capacity of recognizing their flaws and problems in infrastructure and evacuation
plans and what is most important their ability not to cover the causes of disaster.
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About the author

Maximiliano E. Korstanje is Tourism BA, Anthropologist (University of Moron, Argentina) and
PhD (cand) in Social Psychology (University John. F. Kennedy, Argentina). One of his areas of
expertise is the study of panic flights in disaster situations in modern and ancient times (Roman
Empire) as well as the risk perception theory applied to travel and tourism. As a specialist he is
concerned with the effects of September 11 or other made-man and natural disasters on tourism
and hospitality. In addition, Maximiliano E. Korstanje has published more than 230 articles
and ten books in peer-review journals throughout the world. In 2002, he obtained his Tourism
BA from the University of Moron in Argentina. A couple of years later he was incorporated as
Expert in Tourism Ministry. In 2007, he gained an entrance to International Association of
Expert and Scientific in Tourism, Saint Gallen Switzerland. In 2008, he became a Master in
Anthropology in Flacso, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nowadays, Maximiliano E. Korstanje is
writing his PhD thesis in social psychology for John. F. Kennedy University in Argentina
regarding the risk perception theory applied to tourism and travels. Maximiliano E. Korstanje
can be contacted at: maxikorstanje@fibertel.com.ar

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