The Coronamovie: how the pandemic unfolds (in 36+ frames)

In a totalizing news situation as we are experiencing now, the scope a daily newspaper’s editorial staff for decision-making is on the one hand intensely constricted, while on the other seems to grow infinitely. With just one topic for weeks (and probably months to come), which affects the whole world, every area of life, every department, everyone involved in producing a newspaper – reporters, photographers, illustrators, columnists, layout artists, typesetters, etc. – appear to know exactly what is to be done. The front pages of the French daily newspaper Libération have always been a model of effective communication design. They have always allowed considerable creative leeway. This is perhaps a particularly good place to seek evidence of editorial determination in navigating through the extremely wide range of possibilities to identify the most urgent theme and its most poignant image to frame the day as it hits the – analogue and digital – newsstand. It is exemplary, how the single topic of the corona crisis is represented by the variety of its cover pages over the course its various editions. Its first cover story hesitant treating the first outbreak of the epidemic in Wuhan on January 23, 2020, then sporadically, and since March 9, uninterrupted, issue after issue, until April 22, when a title story on the potential consequences of petrol politics introduced a subject not directly related to COVID-19).  It results in a quasi-filmic movement, a sequence, a dramaturgy. The attention and interests, attuned to the expectations of the readers and to the political-journalistic agenda-setting of the newspaper, track the pandemic developments in a day-by-day rhythm. Its coverage began with reports from China (four front pages in January and February), followed by those of neighbouring Italy (two covers) and directly accompanied by a focus on the preparations in France, the impact on the financial markets and the economy in general (three covers), the government’s reactions and President Macron’s decrees of a state of emergency (four cover pictures). This continued until the front-page editorial team held their sights on the situation in hospitals and conditions for medical staff and the alterations in everyday life and the effects of the lockdown in economic and socio-psychological terms. A national event such as the death of “Asterix” illustrator Uderzo (on 25 March) brought forth a cover picture immediately placing Uderzo’s visual language at the service of corona reporting with Obelix’s menhir mutating into a virus. One could almost surmise a self-reflexive gesture by the Libé editorial staff and its visual experts, a reference to the consecutive pictorial narrative of the pandemic, the very bande dessinée, that continues here daily. TH

 

 

June 18, 2020

 

June 17, 2020

 

June 16, 2020

 

June 15, 2020

 

June 13/14, 2020

 

June 12, 2020

 

June 11,  2020

 

June 10, 2020

 

June 9,  2020

 

 

June 8, 2020

 

June 6/7, 2020

 

June 5, 2020

 

June 4, 2020

 

June 3, 2020

 

June 2, 2020

 

May 30, 31, June 1, 2020

 

May 29, 2020

 

May 28, 2020

 

May 27, 2020

 

May 26, 2020

 

May 25, 2020

 

May 23/24, 2020

 

May 22, 2020

 

May 21, 2020

 

May 20, 2020

 

May 19, 2020

 

May 18, 2020

 

May 16/17, 2020

 

May 15, 2020

 

May 14, 2020

 

May 13, 2020

 

May 12, 2020

 

May 11, 2020

 

May 9/10, 2020

 

May 8, 2020

 

May 7, 2020

 

May 6, 2020

 

May 5, 2020

 

May 4, 2020

 

May 2/3, 2020

 

April 30, 2020

 

April 29, 2020

 

April 28, 2020

 

April 27, 2020

 

April 25/26, 2020

 

April 24, 2020

 

April 23, 2020

 

April 22, 2020

 

April 21, 2020

 

April 20, 2020

 

April 18/19, 2020

 

April 17, 2020

 

April 16, 2020

 

April 15, 2020

 

 

April 14, 2020

 

April 11/12/13, 2020

 

April 10, 2020

 

April 9, 2020

 

April 8, 2020

 

April 7, 2020

 

April 6, 2020

 

April 4/5, 2020

 

April 3, 2020

 

April 2,  2020

 

April 1, 2020

 

March 31, 2020

 

March 30, 2020

 

March 28/29, 2020

 

March 27, 2020

 

March 26, 2020

 

 

March 25, 2020

 

March 24, 2020

 

March 23, 2020

 

March 21/22, 2020

 

March 20, 2020

 

March 19, 2020

 

March 18, 2020

 

March 17, 2020

 

March 16, 2020

 

 

March 14/15, 2020

 

March 13, 2020

 

 

March 12, 2020

 

March 11, 2020

 

March 10, 2020

 

March 9, 2020

 

March 7/8, 2020

 

March 6, 2020

 

March 5, 2020

 

 

March 4, 2020

 

February 27, 2020

 

February 26, 2020

 

February 25, 2020

 

Februar 24, 2020

 

February 10, 2020

 

February 1/2, 2020

 

January 28, 2020

 

January 23, 2020

 

April 2nd, 2020 — Rosa Mercedes / 02