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Article published In:
Online Health Communication: Expert and Lay Dialogic Practices
Edited by Anna Tereszkiewicz and Magdalena Szczyrbak
[Language and Dialogue 14:2] 2024
► pp. 297–331

‘The benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks… they say’

Italian Facebook users’ comments on the AstraZeneca vaccine suspension

| University of Macerata
| University of Macerata
| University of Macerata

This study aims to analyse Italian Internet users’ comments on two posts that appeared on the Facebook page of the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera during a particularly critical phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (specifically, March 2021). At that time, the AstraZeneca vaccine had been temporarily suspended in some European countries due to confirmed reports of blood clots but subsequently declared “safe and effective” by the European Medicines Agency. Two datasets of comments were collected and analysed by combining automatic and manual, as well as quantitative and qualitative, methods. The main findings shed light on the orientation (agreement vs disagreement), construction of consensus and dissent, and epistemic positioning of Facebook users when they are confronted and engaged in dialogue with uncertain news about public health issues.

Keywords: COVID-19, AstraZeneca vaccine, Facebook, epistemic positioning, KUB model, uncertainty
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Materials and methods
    • 2.1Data description and collection
      • Characteristics of the two datasets
    • 2.2Aims and procedures
      • The KUB model
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Word lists
    • 3.2Sentiment analysis: Positive/negative/neutral attitudes
    • 3.3Thematic analysis
    • 3.4Pragmalinguistic analysis
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 June 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00173.ric
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