This paper examines the power of a mediatized President to use reflexive propaganda—the rules and assumptions of digital media—to define a public health crisis. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, President Trump engaged in attention-based politics, or the use of media to draw attention of the largest audience to himself, at the expense of an efficient response to a major public health crisis. The repetitive tweets, with a common form—vulgar and combative language, usually against journalists—converted Donald Trump into a digital meme and enabled the President to dwell on his distorted accomplishments and TV ratings, to downplay health risks, and initially define the lethal virus as a benign hoax.

中文翻译：

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特朗普时代的流行病：数字媒体逻辑和致命的政治

本文考察了媒体化总统使用自反性宣传（数字媒体的规则和假设）来定义公共卫生危机的能力。在 2020 年冠状病毒大流行期间，特朗普总统参与了基于注意力的政治活动，或利用媒体来吸引最多观众的注意力，以牺牲对重大公共卫生危机的有效应对为代价。重复的推文，以一种常见的形式——粗俗和好斗的语言，通常是针对记者的——将唐纳德特朗普变成了一个数字模因，并使总统能够专注于他扭曲的成就和电视收视率，淡化健康风险，并初步定义了致命病毒作为一个良性的骗局。