Browsing by Author "Armijos, Jacqueline"

This thesis analyses COVID-19 vaccine discourse in online news in December 2022 by applying APPRAISAL, in particular, the APPRECIATION subsystem, and corpus-based methods such as frequency, keyword, and concordance line. The analysis addresses three research questions based on a dataset of 599 concordance lines, from the Coronavirus corpus representing twenty English speaking countries. The study identifies the top twenty adjectives associated with COVID-19 vaccines, classifying them into four main categories according to their social value and particular characteristics. The main findings show that positive attitudes emerge through interpersonal meaning in online news. Mainly, journalists portray the vaccine discourse under WHO’s ideology, hoping for a ‘New normality’. On the other hand, negative attitudes showcased challenges and controversies. Hence, the study emphasizes the importance of shaping public health communication and opinions built on transparent scientific and consensual information. That is the study stresses the value of providing the public with accurate and well-supported information to shape a better understanding and opinions related to health concerns. Finally, the methodological contribution suggests implementing uniqueness as a new subcategory, but the existing subcategory, balance, deserves more attention whether to implement it or not in future studies. The study also highlights the impact of political ideologies on COVID-19 vaccine discourse, and thus recommends future research on attitudes in non-English-languages areas.