Comparing the Pandemic Representation in the Films Contagious, Contagion, and the Indonesian-Malaysian Media

Any kind of pandemic or epidemic will bring many new habits and changes in different aspects of the society experiencing it, including the global COVID-19 pandemic, especially when it turns into something life-threatening for humans. Adjustments in lifestyles and the loss of many people became things that were regularly reported in the media. The post-pandemic era has brought people to observe past media content, including films, that told stories and information about any kind of pandemic or epidemic produced before the COVID-19 pandemic, in comparison to life during the COVID-19 pandemic. By using the textual analysis method, this research looks upon two films, Contagious (1997) and Contagion (2011), respectively showing the stories of an epidemic and a pandemic and contrast these movies with the news reports on the media to observe how both films and the media represent the health and social crisis during the pandemic and also the similarities or differences shown in both films and the media. This scope for the news is limited to news of COVID-19 reported on Indonesian and Malaysian media during the pandemic peak (2020-2021), while a little bit of discussion will be added regarding its resurgence in late 2023, as well as the observation on the films and the media looks at three major things: how the infected are handled, life adjustments that are necessary for surviving, and how the pandemic is communicated to the public.