Health information is fundamental during an outbreak, but viral speculation can easily bury the limited information we have, notwithstanding the scientific community is making huge progress in understanding the Covid-19 infection and the World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations are making a concerted effort to counter the infodemic and conspiracy theories (WHO 2019). A case in point is Coronacast, a podcast aimed at “break[ing] down the latest news and research to help [the Australian public] understand how the world is living through the pandemic”. In order to see whether its aim was met, the podcast hosts’ discourse during their daily episodes was examined through a cluster, collocation and concordance analysis to identify the possible presence of the CONSPIR tactic (Lewandowsky, Cook 2020). This tactic includes 7 traits of conspiratorial thinking characterized by Contradictory Logic, an Overwhelming Distrust of official explanations seen as Nefarious Intent to endanger people, and a conviction that Something Must be Wrong. Moreover, according to this tactic, the hosts would speak of themselves as Persecuted Victims, their narrative would be Immune to Evidence, and they would reinterpret Random Events as if they were woven into broader, interrelated patterns. Finally, this study added two more letters to the CONSPIR acronym – AC – as it examined whether the two podcast hosts express uncertainty in Anxious or Cognitive ways. This analysis seems to open the way for a better evidence-based understanding of the powerful impact of the ideological dimension of words being inculcated into Australian society’s belief system by emergent institutions such as podcasts.
COVID-19: EXPLORING LINGUISTIC INDICATORS OF CONSPIRATORIAL THINKING IN THE MEDIA A case study of Coronacast
Groicher Matthew;Maglie Rosita
2023-01-01
Abstract
Health information is fundamental during an outbreak, but viral speculation can easily bury the limited information we have, notwithstanding the scientific community is making huge progress in understanding the Covid-19 infection and the World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations are making a concerted effort to counter the infodemic and conspiracy theories (WHO 2019). A case in point is Coronacast, a podcast aimed at “break[ing] down the latest news and research to help [the Australian public] understand how the world is living through the pandemic”. In order to see whether its aim was met, the podcast hosts’ discourse during their daily episodes was examined through a cluster, collocation and concordance analysis to identify the possible presence of the CONSPIR tactic (Lewandowsky, Cook 2020). This tactic includes 7 traits of conspiratorial thinking characterized by Contradictory Logic, an Overwhelming Distrust of official explanations seen as Nefarious Intent to endanger people, and a conviction that Something Must be Wrong. Moreover, according to this tactic, the hosts would speak of themselves as Persecuted Victims, their narrative would be Immune to Evidence, and they would reinterpret Random Events as if they were woven into broader, interrelated patterns. Finally, this study added two more letters to the CONSPIR acronym – AC – as it examined whether the two podcast hosts express uncertainty in Anxious or Cognitive ways. This analysis seems to open the way for a better evidence-based understanding of the powerful impact of the ideological dimension of words being inculcated into Australian society’s belief system by emergent institutions such as podcasts.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
