Corpus Diagnostics in Linguistic Construction: Vaccination Against COVID-19 in the German-Language Media Discourse
https://doi.org/10.21603/sibscript-2023-25-4-471-480
Abstract
In 2020, German media experienced a surge of publications about vaccination against COVID-19, which demonstrated a great diversity of linguistic tools that could shape public opinion on the matter. This article introduces a study of neological processes in the German language in the post-pandemic period. The research relied on the method of corpus diagnostics to develop a linguistic reconstruction of the COVID-19 vaccination as a media event. The research covered 612 news articles published in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021. The Voyant Tools software generated a corpus of news texts with Impfung for a subsequent analysis, which made it possible to reveal lexical trends, correlations, and collocations. The corpus analysis provided a linguistic reconstruction of the vaccination against COVID-19 in the German-speaking countries. Austrian and Swiss media discourse emphasized the need for vaccination for all citizens while Germany focused on the social aspects of vaccination. Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca appeared to be the most discussed vaccines in the German-speaking area.
About the Authors
Yulia A. Lagazhan
Southern Federal University
Russian Federation
Competing Interests:
Russian Federation
Rostov-on-Don
Competing Interests:
The authors declared no potential conflict of interests regarding the research, authorship, and / or publication of this article.
Anna V. Lenets
Southern Federal University
Russian Federation
Competing Interests:
Russian Federation
Rostov-on-Don
Scopus Author ID: 57194559313
Competing Interests:
The authors declared no potential conflict of interests regarding the research, authorship, and / or publication of this article.
References
1. Belopasov V. V, Zhuravleva E. N, Nugmanova N. P., Abdrashitova A. T. Post-COVID-19 neurological syndromes. Journal of Clinical Practice, 2021, 12(2): 69–82. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17816/clinpract71137
2. Kubar O. I. Modern ethical challenges of vaccination. Ethics of vaccination as the criteria of the scientific and humanistic approach, ed. O. I. Kubar. St. Petersburg: Saint-Petersburg Pasteur Institute, 2018, 66–73. (In Russ.)
3. Lenets A. V., Zaripova A. N. Linguoculture and pragmatics aspects of the use of culture-bound terms in mass media messages regarding migration (based on mass media discourse in Germany and Austria). Izvestiya Yugo-Zapadnogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Lingvistika i pedagogika, 2018, 8(4): 73–81. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/vrznda
4. Nim E. G. "Media events": A never-ending theory? Sotsiologicheskiy Zhurnal, 2019, 25(4): 28–37. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.19181/socjour.2019.25.4.6815
5. Prostyakova V. A. Norwegian newspaper market during the COVID-19 pandemic. Voprosy teorii i praktiki zhurnalistiki, 2022, 11(1): 76–85. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17150/2308-6203.2022.11(1).76-85
6. Reutov V. P. COVID-19: four possible pandemic scenarios. Varieties of strains affecting neurological and mental disorders in humans. Evraziiskoe nauchnoe obyedinenie, 2021, (10-2): 117–153. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5717304
7. Sergienko D. F., Kuzmin E. A., Emeeva Z. Y., Kosareva A. R., Abdulaeva P. M., Pogosyan K. A., Zaplavnyy V. M. Vaccination against COVID 19: prejudice, preconception and truth. Astrakhan Medical Journal, 2022, 17(2): 14–20. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.48612/agmu/2022.17.2.14.20
8. Coneva L. M. Specificity of presentation of vaccination against coronavirus in media discourse. Political Linguistics, 2021, (6): 37–45. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.26170/1999-2629_2021_06_04
9. Anwar A., Malik M., Raees V., Anwar A. Role of mass media and public health communications in the COVID-19 pandemic. Cureus, 2020, 12(9). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10453
10. Baines A., Ittefaq M., Abwao M. #Scamdemic, #Plandemic, or #Scaredemic: What parler social media platform tells us about COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccines, 2021, 9(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9050421
11. Bozdağ F. The psychological effects of staying home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Journal of General Psychology, 2021, 148(3): 226–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309.2020.1867494
12. Chen C., Liu X., Yan D., Zhou Y., Ding Ch., Chen L., Lan L., Huang Ch., Jiang D., Zhang X., Guan Zh., Fu X., Du Y., Lin Yu., Zhu Ch., Wu J. W., Li L., Yang Sh. Global influenza vaccination rates and factors associated with influenza vaccination. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2022, 125: 153–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.10.038
13. Douglas M., Katikireddi S. V., Taulbut M., McKee M., McCartney G. Mitigating the wider health effects of covid-19 pandemic response. BMJ, 2020, 369. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1557
14. Figueiredo S., Massano-Cardoso I. O impacto dos media no medo de contrair COVID-19. Revista Portuguesa de Investigação Comportamental e Social, 2021, 7(2): 89–102. https://doi.org/10.31211/rpics.2021.7.2.225
15. Hwang T. J., Rabheru K., Peisah C., Reichman W., Ikeda M. Loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Psychogeriatrics, 2020, 32(10): 1217–1220. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610220000988
16. Klosa-Kückelhaus A. Ein Weg aus der Coronakrise: Das Impfen. Aktuelle Stellungnahmen zur Sprache in der Coronakrise. Mannheim: Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS), 2021a. URL: https://www.ids-mannheim.de/fileadmin/aktuell/Coronakrise/Klosa_Impfen.pdf (accessed 20 Oct 2022).
17. Klosa-Kückelhaus A. Über Corona sprechen: eine besondere Zeit und ihre Folgen. Aktuelle Stellungnahmen zur Sprache in der Coronakrise. Mannheim: Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS), 2021b. URL: https://www.ids-mannheim.de/fileadmin/aktuell/Coronakrise/Klosa_Corona_FOLK.pdf (accessed 20 Oct 2022).
18. Lapenkov D. S., Olejnik O. V. Neologisms in the language of German press. Neophilology, 2020, 6(21): 59–66. https://doi.org/10.20310/2587-6953-2020-6-21-59-66
19. Lenets A. V., Lagazhan Yu. A. Pragmalinguistic potential of Covid-neologisms in the German media discourse of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Word, statement, and text in cognitive, pragmatic, and cultural aspects: XI Intern. Sci. Conf., Chelyabinsk, 7–9 Apr 2022. Chelyabinsk: ChelSU, 2022, pt. 1, 231–236. https://doi.org/10.47475/9785727118047_231
20. Román-San-Miguel A., Sánchez-Gey Valenzuela N., Elías-Zambrano R. Las fake news durante el Estado de Alarma por COVID-19. Análisis desde el punto de vista político en la prensa española. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 2020, (78): 359–391. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2020-1481
21. Trnka R, Lorencova R. Fear, anger, and media-induced trauma during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2020, 12(5): 546–549. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000675
22. Trout L. J., Kleinman A. Covid-19 Requires a Social Medicine Response. Frontiers in Sociology, 2020, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.579991
23. Van Dorn A., Cooney R. E., Sabin M. L. COVID-19 exacerbating inequalities in the US. The Lancet, 2020, 395(10232): 1243–1244. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30893-X
24. Wassler P., Talarico C. Sociocultural impacts of COVID-19: A social representations perspective. Tourism Management Perspectives, 2021, 38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2021.100813
25. Wolfer S., Koplenig A., Michaelis F., Müller-Spitzer C. cOWIDplus Analyse: Wie sehr schränkt die Corona-Krise das Vokabular deutschsprachiger Online-Presse ein? OWIDplus. Mannheim: Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS), 2020. URL: https://www.ids-mannheim.de/fileadmin/aktuell/Coronakrise/mueller-spitzer_2.pdf (accessed 20 Oct 2022).
26. Wormer H. German media and coronavirus: Exceptional communication – or just a catalyst for existing tendencies? Media and Communication, 2020, 8(2): 467–470. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i2.3242
Review
For citations:
Lagazhan Yu.A., Lenets A.V. Corpus Diagnostics in Linguistic Construction: Vaccination Against COVID-19 in the German-Language Media Discourse. SibScript. 2023;25(4):471-480. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.21603/sibscript-2023-25-4-471-480
Views:
247
Email this article 