Conspiracy theories (CT) vs truth-based reporting: A corpus driven analysis of Covid-19 online newspaper(s) discourse

In the backdrop of the emergence of conspiracy theories (CT)during the critical days of the pandemic, the discourse of online CT goes unchallenged and has become the part of mundane beliefs. The present study investigates the language/discourse of selected CT online newspaper storie...

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Main Authors: Zafar Ullah Shaheen, Ayyaz Qadeer, Fouzia Rehman Khan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Corpus Research Center 2021-12-01
Series:Corporum
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.au.edu.pk/ojscrc/index.php/crc/article/view/275/176
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author Zafar Ullah Shaheen
Ayyaz Qadeer
Fouzia Rehman Khan
author_facet Zafar Ullah Shaheen
Ayyaz Qadeer
Fouzia Rehman Khan
author_sort Zafar Ullah Shaheen
collection DOAJ
description In the backdrop of the emergence of conspiracy theories (CT)during the critical days of the pandemic, the discourse of online CT goes unchallenged and has become the part of mundane beliefs. The present study investigates the language/discourse of selected CT online newspaper stories related to the COVID 19 pandemic and compares it with truth-based covid-19 stories. AntConc 3.5.8 (Anthony, 2019) isused as corpus linguistics tool to extract the keywords of the selected newspaper stories, as they are lexical signposts to reveal the most characteristic themes or ‘aboutness’ of the text. A list of keywords generated from the conspiracy corpus includes<China>, <theory>, <conspiracy>, <theories>, <Chinese>, <anti>, >claims>, <wuhan>, <psychological> and <virus>,while the truth-based corpus generated <truth>, <science>, <bullshit>, <posttruth>,<death>, <theory><model> and <covid> as keywords. The keyword list was a handy tool for directing investigators to identify significant lexical differences between both texts and these keywords were further investigated through cluster/N-Grams, concordance and finally for collocates in order to get a more realistic perspective of the keywords generated. Further results showed conspiracy, claims and psychological has co-occurred in the conspiracy corpus and truth and post truth co-occurred in truth-based corpus.
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spelling doaj.art-ae374c8fd4fb4f3db191a1efab095d9f2023-09-01T07:00:32ZengCorpus Research CenterCorporum2617-29172707-787X2021-12-0142112134Conspiracy theories (CT) vs truth-based reporting: A corpus driven analysis of Covid-19 online newspaper(s) discourseZafar Ullah Shaheen0Ayyaz Qadeer1Fouzia Rehman Khan2Lecturer in English Govt. Gordon College RawalpindiAssistant Professor(English) COMSATS University, Wah CanttAssistant Professor, Department of English SBKWU, Quetta.In the backdrop of the emergence of conspiracy theories (CT)during the critical days of the pandemic, the discourse of online CT goes unchallenged and has become the part of mundane beliefs. The present study investigates the language/discourse of selected CT online newspaper stories related to the COVID 19 pandemic and compares it with truth-based covid-19 stories. AntConc 3.5.8 (Anthony, 2019) isused as corpus linguistics tool to extract the keywords of the selected newspaper stories, as they are lexical signposts to reveal the most characteristic themes or ‘aboutness’ of the text. A list of keywords generated from the conspiracy corpus includes<China>, <theory>, <conspiracy>, <theories>, <Chinese>, <anti>, >claims>, <wuhan>, <psychological> and <virus>,while the truth-based corpus generated <truth>, <science>, <bullshit>, <posttruth>,<death>, <theory><model> and <covid> as keywords. The keyword list was a handy tool for directing investigators to identify significant lexical differences between both texts and these keywords were further investigated through cluster/N-Grams, concordance and finally for collocates in order to get a more realistic perspective of the keywords generated. Further results showed conspiracy, claims and psychological has co-occurred in the conspiracy corpus and truth and post truth co-occurred in truth-based corpus.https://journals.au.edu.pk/ojscrc/index.php/crc/article/view/275/176chineseclaimsconspiracycorpuscovidtheorypost-truth
spellingShingle Zafar Ullah Shaheen
Ayyaz Qadeer
Fouzia Rehman Khan
Conspiracy theories (CT) vs truth-based reporting: A corpus driven analysis of Covid-19 online newspaper(s) discourse
Corporum
chinese
claims
conspiracy
corpus
covid
theory
post-truth
title Conspiracy theories (CT) vs truth-based reporting: A corpus driven analysis of Covid-19 online newspaper(s) discourse
title_full Conspiracy theories (CT) vs truth-based reporting: A corpus driven analysis of Covid-19 online newspaper(s) discourse
title_fullStr Conspiracy theories (CT) vs truth-based reporting: A corpus driven analysis of Covid-19 online newspaper(s) discourse
title_full_unstemmed Conspiracy theories (CT) vs truth-based reporting: A corpus driven analysis of Covid-19 online newspaper(s) discourse
title_short Conspiracy theories (CT) vs truth-based reporting: A corpus driven analysis of Covid-19 online newspaper(s) discourse
title_sort conspiracy theories ct vs truth based reporting a corpus driven analysis of covid 19 online newspaper s discourse
topic chinese
claims
conspiracy
corpus
covid
theory
post-truth
url https://journals.au.edu.pk/ojscrc/index.php/crc/article/view/275/176
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AT fouziarehmankhan conspiracytheoriesctvstruthbasedreportingacorpusdrivenanalysisofcovid19onlinenewspapersdiscourse