Manipulative Rhetoric of the Vaccine Discourse (by the Material of the American Online Mass Media Discourse)
The issues of linguistic manipulation and misinformation in mass media are of relevance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the linguistic means of public opinion manipulation in the news coverage of the COVID-19 vaccines are not sufficiently studied. Therefore, the aim of the research is to identify the rhetorical strategies and linguistic means of public opinion manipulation that are used by journalists in the US vaccine online mass media discourse. Particular attention is paid to the study of such common rhetorical strategies as appeals to the authority of politicians, pseudo-experts and journalists themselves. Scientific novelty lies in taking an interdisciplinary approach to the study of linguistic manipulation mechanisms from the perspective of linguistics, rhetoric and journalism alike. The discourse analysis of the news stories has revealed that the Sputnik V vaccine coverage is politicised, while positive or negative images of the vaccine are mainly created by choosing and using expressive linguistic means and stylistic devices in order to either discredit or promote the image of both the vaccine itself and its producing country.