Discursive manipulation and disinformation in the Covid-19 pandemic:

the anti-vaccine discourse on social media.

Abstract

In this article, we aimed to analyze the discursive practice of disinformation as a resource for manipulating subjects, considering the relationship between the processes of production, distribution and consumption of fake news in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The theoretical-methodological assumptions involved categories from the dialectical-relational (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001) and sociocognitive (VAN DIJK, 2010) approaches of the field of Critical Discourse Analysis, taking the text as a minimum unit permeated by the notions of hegemonic power and ideologies. The methodology was characterized as a qualitative documentary analysis, through which we analyzed a corpus formed by 6 (six) fake news taken from fact-checking sites and whose subject was about the vaccine(s) against Coronavirus. This material was found on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, with a time frame from August 2020 to March 2021. The analysis allowed us to describe the discursive-multisemiotic aspects considered in the moments of production and propagation of this fake news on social networks, as well as to identify their relationship with the socio-cognitive manipulation of subjects, which occurred at the time of consumption of the misleading material. Thus, this study proposes reflections to improve actions to combat scientific denialism, which cost lives in the pandemic context.