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The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected our society, and the media has played a crucial role in shaping the public's understanding of the crisis. As a social institution, the media constructs and disseminates information about the pandemic, providing interpretations of the complexities of reality such as social distancing. To examine how media construct stories about social distancing during the pandemic, this study analyzed The New York Times editorial articles published during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing word-association network analysis and cluster analysis based on Convergence of Iterated Correlations analysis, this study examined 653 editorials published in The New York Times regarding social distancing in the period spanning January 27, 2020, to January 4, 2023. The word-association network analysis revealed that the most salient keywords in the editorials were “COVID”, “People”, and “Virus.” Cluster analysis identified four major discussions constructed in the text: "The Impact of Science and Politics on Public Benefit," "Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic," "Government Responses to Combat the Spread of the COVID-19," and "Impact of the COVID-19 on Daily Lives in New York." The findings indicated that the most frequently employed keywords revolved around the pandemic and the associated governmental responses. Furthermore, the media narratives concerning social distancing were predominantly framed around the salience of government interventions, scientific strategies, and the role of social distancing.
