(De)Constructing Corona: the Language of Conspiracy. Power and Indifference in Covid-19 Health Discourses.

The media have greatly played a critical role as avenue of ‘massive infodemic’ of false and accurate information about the novel coronavirus. The popular beliefs are the existence of some secret plots which the powerful elites hide from the public, purposely for political manipulation, population control and social control. These beliefs find expressions in conspiracy theories. They emerge when tragic event such as the pandemic is explained by rejecting the accepted narrative. They are, therefore, driven by a strong desire to unveil social forces that are self-relevant, important, and threatening (Reid, 2010). To further strengthen the conspiracy theories, many people across the globe have become indifferent to the pandemic. The strategies by the World Health Organization and governments of different nations to curtail the spread of the pandemic also indicate some levels of power usage. Against this backdrop, this book explores the affordances in linguistic and literary studies in unveiling the overt and covert ideological beliefs which reflect conspiracy, power and indifference in the pandemic discourse. Essentially, it interrogates various issues such as biopolitical approach to the discourse of conspiracy, lockdown and reopening, media (mis)representation of the pandemic, language of appraisal and power, coping strategies, vaccination hesitancy and many more.