Disinformation discursive practice

analysis of the production of antiscientific posts about the effectiveness of vaccines in the covid-19 pandemic in 2021-2022

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the disinformation discursive practice, considering the interdiscursivity in anti-scientific posts about the effectiveness of vaccines during the period of the covid-19 pandemic in the years 2021-2022. For that reason, the study carries out a reflection on the social situation that was on the agenda in Brazil, especially from the relationship between political and pseudoscientific discourse. The research is based on the Critical Discourse Studies, more specifically from the dialectical-relational approach (Fairclough, 2001), as well as from studies on disinformation (Wardle; Derakhshan, 2017). In methodological terms, this article adopts the qualitative approach and uses Fairclough's (2001) Textually Oriented Discourse Analysis (TODA) method. Concerning the data collection, we gathered five posts during the period 2021-2022 that were checked by the Lupa agency and that had as theme the denial of vaccine effectiveness. The analysis shows that the main relationships established via the disinformation texts are of a political nature, defending/attacking certain social actors, as well as of a pseudoscientific nature based on the institutionalized (academic/governmental) authority brought to the texts with the aim of deceiving users.