The GDELT Project

How Online News Mentions Of Covid-19 Terminology Stack Up Against Dictionary Searches

The Economist's Daily Chart published a fascinating set of charts last week tracing elevated dictionary lookups on Merriam Webster's site for various terms that have featured prominently in the Covid-19 discourse. Yesterday we looked at how those terms have been covered on television news, which got us wondering how their usage in online news stacks up. The following graphs trace usage of the same terms in global online news since the start of this year.

Epidemic

Live Version.

Pandemic

Live Version.

Quarantine

Live Version.

Self-Isolation

Live Version.

Draconian

Live Version.

Lockdown

Live Version.

Triage

Live Version.

Martial Law

Live Version.

Cancel

Live Version.

Panic

Live Version.

Hoarding

Live Version.

Force Majeure

Live Version.