Borko Baraban, Lorna Rajle: LANGUAGE ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICAL DISCOURSE ON THE EXAMPLE OF MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE CORONAVIRUS
Scientific Paper
Borko Baraban, Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek
Lorna Rajle, Community Service Centre Klasje Osijek
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59014/SUIN2610
Keywords:
epidemic, language analysis, coronavirus, media, political discourse
Abstract
Digital media and means of mass communication play an essential role in disseminating
information. Studies (Vozab and Peruško, 2021) have shown that the pandemic
merely accelerated the apparent shift towards digital news sources. In the 21st
century, the internet has become the primary source of information, used by persons
of various age groups (Benzinović, Dabo and Šimić, 2021). Authors also point out
that the media influence the formation of the public opinion (Jurčić, 2017), especially
on topics that their audience knows little or nothing about (Klapper, 1974, as
cited in Kovačević, 2020, 5). Chomsky (2002) goes as far as to claim that the media
participate in the control and surveillance of the masses. Other authors have argued
that the media wield tremendous power in crisis situations, given their ability to filter
information and shape opinions on certain problems and their solutions, which can
reinforce existing prejudice (Nelkin, 1987, as cited in Kovačević, 2020, 5-6). The
coronavirus pandemic provided a perfect breeding ground for fearmongering and
dissemination of false and sensationalist news and spins, which are given unmerited
space in the media landscape even in normal circumstances. Since the ability to
recognise fake news and think critically is one of the prerequisites for responsible
internet use, the question is if a person can tell the difference between truth and lie
when faced with a deluge of conflicting information about COVID-19 – how infection
occurs, how the disease spreads, how we protect ourselves from it, and how it is
treated – that are disseminated by a variety of authoritative voices, even if this person
has good critical thinking skills.
This paper seeks to analyse the language contained in web portal articles about the
epidemic that championed opposing views, and examine how this content influenced
the formation of the public opinion. For this purpose, the authors analysed articles
published on the highest-readership Croatian web portals and on official coronavirus
information websites that contained the following keywords: coronavirus, vaccine,
COVID certificate, recovery, pregnancy, symptoms, cases, children. Analysis results
have shown that the articles overflow with unclear, illogical, incomplete or contradictory
information, and use linguistic devices that exhibit the characteristics of political
discourse.
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