Abstract

The measures taken by most governments of countries affected by the Coronavirus have produced a major impact on media systems. The very condition of domestic isolation and the physical distancing protocols resulting from this unprecedented situation can be effectively interpreted through a number of concepts from media studies. This article reflects on the COVID-19 phenomenon as an «assemblage» of mediation and immunization. In a time when everyone can be considered as the medium of the virus, both the communication devices and the health care devices assume an immunization function that risks being insufficient to contain the virus as well as excessive to the detriment of psychological and civil life. What emerges is the need to overcome the rigid opposition between the mediatised world and the natural world, as a key to interpreting the present scenario and the next future. The critical attention paid by many commentators to the digital technologies through which many works have been carried out during the lockdown must be extended to the physical spaces and distancing protocols that will be adopted in the reopening of public spaces.