Received: 14 June 2021 Revised: 15 December 2021 Accepted: 15 December 2021 DOI: 10.1111/asap.12300 ORIGINAL ARTICLE A pandemic of hate: Social representations of COVID-19 in the media Muhammad Ittefaq 1 Mauryne Abwao 1 Annalise Baines 1 Genelle Belmas 1 Shafiq Ahmad Kamboh 2 Ever Josue Figueroa 1 1 William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA 2 Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), Universitat Bremen, Germany Correspondence Muhammad Ittefaq, William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Com- munications, The University of Kansas, Stauffer-Flint Hall, Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. Email: muhammadittefaq@ku.edu Abstract Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Asians, particularly those in Chinese communities, have faced increased dis- crimination and overt racism in addition to the virus itself. In this study, the authors examined social representations of COVID-19 in mainstream newspapers. We evaluated 451 articles from three major publications representing three countries: China, the United States, and the United King- dom. A qualitative thematic analysis, conducted through the lens of social representations theory (SRT) and its con- cept of cognitive polyphasia, revealed four major themes: (a) the virus’ portrayal as a threat; (b) the racialization of COVID-19 as a multi-faceted threat; (c) calls for collec- tivization to curb the racialization of the virus; and (d) speculative solutions to end discrimination against Asians. Our results suggest that print media emphasize the idea that global efforts must be made to change how people think about, talk about, and understand the COVID-19 pandemic. INTRODUCTION On March 20, 2020, then-President Donald Trump branded the coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus,” saying, “It’s [the label] not racist at all. No, not at all. It comes from China, that’s why. It comes from China. I want to be accurate” (Forgey, 2020, p. 2). Critics condemned the term and called it xenophobic and racially offensive, a term that potentially put Chinese and Asians in © 2022 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Anal Soc Issues Public Policy 2022;1–28. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/asap 1