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Part of
Science Communication in Times of Crisis
Edited by Pascal Hohaus
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 96] 2022
► pp. 169–196

Chapter 8
‘Coronavirus as a political weapon’

The COVID pandemic through the lens of the US Alt-Right Media

| Dokuz Eylul University
Considering the politicization of the Covid-19 pandemic and sharp social polarization in the USA in the eve of the elections (Allcott et al. 2020; Motta et al. 2020; Hart, Chinn and Soroka 2020), this study focused on the discursive representation of the coronavirus crisis by the American Alternative Right, which was known to be in favor of the incumbent president Donald Trump. By means of triangulating the qualitative Discourse-Historical Approach (Wodak 2001) with quantitative Corpus Linguistic Approach (Baker 2006), I analyzed discourse topics, naming preferences, characteristics, and argumentation strategies related to the in-group and out-group actors in the Alt-Right coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. In congruence with the group’s racist, anti-elitist and anti-establishment ideology, the group represented this health crisis as a political conflict in terms of a sinister war by a secret cabal against the white people and Trump. In addition to this conspiratorial rhetoric which aimed at capitalizing on the panic and chaos to get electoral support, the Alt-Right also portrayed the pandemic as an opportunity to actualize their radical agenda. Whilst scientific recommendations and measures were defied, they glorified the nativist and protectionist regulations such as border closures and immigration ban to get one step further to their purely White America ideal. The findings have shown that the Alt-Right prioritized political gains over science and public health.
Keywords: Covid-19, the Alt-Right, representation, far-right, Trump, misinformation
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
  • The Alt Right and Trump
  • Coronavirus in the United States
  • Methods and data
  • Findings
    • Keywords
    • Social actor representation
    • The representation of the out-group actors
    • The representation of the in-group actor
  • Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 10 August 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.96.08koc
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