Cover not available

Article published In: Online Health Communication: Expert and Lay Dialogic Practices
Edited by Anna Tereszkiewicz and Magdalena Szczyrbak
[Language and Dialogue 14:2] 2024
► pp. 297–331

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

‘The benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks… they say’

Italian Facebook users’ comments on the AstraZeneca vaccine suspension

 | University of Macerata
 | University of Macerata
 | University of Macerata
Published online: 13 June 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00173.ric
Abstract
This study aims to analyse Italian Internet users’ comments on two posts that appeared on the Facebook page of the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera during a particularly critical phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (specifically, March 2021). At that time, the AstraZeneca vaccine had been temporarily suspended in some European countries due to confirmed reports of blood clots but subsequently declared “safe and effective” by the European Medicines Agency. Two datasets of comments were collected and analysed by combining automatic and manual, as well as quantitative and qualitative, methods. The main findings shed light on the orientation (agreement vs disagreement), construction of consensus and dissent, and epistemic positioning of Facebook users when they are confronted and engaged in dialogue with uncertain news about public health issues.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Materials and methods
    • 2.1Data description and collection
      • Characteristics of the two datasets
    • 2.2Aims and procedures
      • The KUB model
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Word lists
    • 3.2Sentiment analysis: Positive/negative/neutral attitudes
    • 3.3Thematic analysis
    • 3.4Pragmalinguistic analysis
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (49)
References
Anthony, Laurence. 2022. AntConc (Version 4.2.0) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. [URL]
Aquino, Francesco, Gabriele Donzelli, Emanuela De Franco, Gaetano Privitera, Pier Luigi Lopalco, and Annalaura Carducci. 2017. “The Web and Public Confidence in MMR Vaccination in Italy.” Vaccine 351: 4494–4498. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bertolazzi, Alessia, Ramona, Bongelli, and Ilaria Riccioni. 2023. “Health Risk Communication during Covid-19 Emergency in Italy: the Impact of Medical Experts’ Debate on Twitter.” Health Communication 1–12. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bongelli, Ramona, Ilaria Riccioni, Laura Vincze, and Andrzej Zuczkowski. 2018. “Questions and Epistemic Stance: Some Examples from Italian Conversations.” Ampersand 51: 29–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bongelli, Ramona, Ilaria Riccioni, Alessandra Fermani, and Gill Philip. 2020. “Hypothetical Questions in Italian Everyday Conversations.” Lingua 2461: 102951. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bongelli, Ramona, Carla Canestrari, Alessandra Fermani, Morena Muzi, Ilaria Riccioni, Alessia Bertolazzi, and Roberto Burro. 2021. “Associations between Personality Traits, Intolerance of Uncertainty, Coping Strategies, and Stress in Italian Frontline and Non-frontline HCWS during the Covid-19 Pandemic – a Multi-group Path-analysis.” Healthcare 9 (8): 1086. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bongelli, Ramona, Andrzej Zuczkowski, and Ilaria Riccioni. 2023. “The Italian Epistemic Disclaimer Non so [I Donʼt Know] in a Corpus of Gynaecological Interactions.” Languages 8(4): 226. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carrieri, Vincenzo, Leonardo Madio, and Francesco Principe. 2019. “Vaccine Hesitancy and (Fake) News: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Italy.” Health Economics 1–6. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chang, Chia-Hsuan, Michael Monselise, and Christopher C. Yang. 2021. “What Are People Concerned about during the Pandemic? Detecting Evolving Topics about COVID-19 from Twitter.” Journal of Healthcare Informatics Research 51: 70–97. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colston, Herbert L. 2017. “Irony and Sarcasm.” In The Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor, ed. by Salvatore Attardo, 234–249. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dubé, Eve, Maryline Vivion, and Noni E. MacDonald. 2015. “Vaccine Hesitancy, Vaccine Refusal and the Anti-vaccine Movement: Influence, Impact and Implications.” Expert Review of Vaccines 14(1): 99–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Franzke, Aline S., Anja Bechmann, Michael Zimmer, and Charles M. Ess. 2020. Internet Research: Ethical Guidelines 3.0. [URL]
Giles, Howard, Nikolas Coupland, and Justine Coupland. 1991. “Accommodation Theory: Communication, Context and Consequences.” In Contexts of Accommodation. Developments in Applied Sociolinguistics, ed. by Howard Giles, Justine Coupland, and Nikolas Coupland, 1–68. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Griffith, Janessa, Husayn Marani, and Helen Monkman. 2021. “COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada: Content Analysis of Tweets Using the Theoretical Domains Framework.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 23(4): e26874. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gruzd, Anatoliy, Deena Abul-Fottouh, Melodie Y. Song, and Alyssa Saiphoo. 2023. “From Facebook to YouTube: The Potential Exposure to COVID-19 Anti-Vaccine Videos on Social Media.” Social Media + Society 9(1): 20563051221150403. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Interian, Ruben, Ruslán G. Marzo, Isela Mendoza, and Celso C. Ribeiro. 2022. “Network Polarization, Filter Bubbles, and Echo Chambers: an Annotated Review of Measures and Reduction Methods.” International Transactions in Operational Research 30(6): 3122–3158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jang, Hyeju, Emily Rempel, David Roth, Giuseppe Carenini, and Naveed Z. Janjua. 2021. “Tracking COVID-19 Discourse on Twitter in North America: Infodemiology Study Using Topic Modeling and Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 23(2): e25431. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Neil F., Nicolas Velásquez, Nicolas J. Restrepo, and Yonatan Lupu. 2020. “The Online Competition between Pro- and Anti-vaccination Views.” Nature 582(7811): 230–233. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jolley, Daniel and Karen M. Douglas. 2014. “The Effects of Anti-vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions.” PloS one 9(2): e89177. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kalichman, Seth C., Lisa A. Eaton, Valerie A. Earnshaw, and Natalie Brousseau. 2022. “Faster than Warp Speed: Early Attention to COVD-19 by Anti-vaccine Groups on Facebook.” Journal of Public Health 44(1): e96–e105. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelp, Nicole C., Jessica K. Witt, and Gayathri Sivakumar. 2022. “To Vaccinate or Not? The Role Played by Uncertainty Communication on Public Understanding and Behavior Regarding COVID-19.” Science Communication 44(2): 223–239. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koshik, Irene. 2003. “Wh-questions Used as Challenges.” Discourse Studies 5(1): 51–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “Responses to Wh-question Challenges”. In Enabling Human Conduct, ed. by Geoffrey Raymond, Gene H. Lerner, and John Heritage, 79–104. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lovari, Alessandro and Nicola Righetti. 2020. “La Comunicazione Pubblica della Salute tra Infodemia e Fake News: il Ruolo della Pagina Facebook del Ministero della Salute nella Sfida Social al Covid-19 [Public Health Communication between Infodemics and Fake News: the Role of the Ministry of Health Facebook Page in the Social Challenge to Covid-19].” Mediascapes Journal 151: 156–173.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lovari, Alessandro, Gea Ducci, and Nicola Righetti. 2021. “Responding to Fake News: The Use of Facebook for Public Health Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy.” In Communicating COVID-19: Interdisciplinary perspectives, ed. by Monique Lewis, Eliza Govender, and Kate Holland, 251–275. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marcec, Robert and Robert Likic. 2022. “Using Twitter for Sentiment Analysis towards AstraZeneca/Oxford, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines.” Postgraduate Medical Journal 98(1161): 544–550. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Masullo, Gina M. 2022. “Facebook Reactions as Heuristics: Exploring Relationships between Reactions and Commenting Frequency on News about COVID-19.” First Monday 27(8). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2014. “Displaying, Contesting and Negotiating Epistemic Authority in Social Interaction: Descriptions and Questions in Guided Visits.” Discourse Studies 15(5): 597–626. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mori, Elisa, Barbara Barabaschi, Franca Cantoni, and Roberta Virtuani. 2020. “Local Governments’ Communication through Facebook. Evidences from COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy.” Journal of Public Affairs 21(4): e2551. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palamenghi, Lorenzo, Serena Barello, Stefania Boccia, Guendalina Graffigna. 2020. “Mistrust in Biomedical Research and Vaccine Hesitancy: The Forefront Challenge in the Battle Against COVID-19 in Italy.” European Journal of Epidemiology 351: 785–788. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Puri, Neha, Eric A. Coomes, Hourmazd Haghbayan, and Keith Gunaratne. 2020. “Social Media and Vaccine Hesitancy: New Updates for the Era of COVID-19 and Globalized Infectious diseases.” Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics 16(11): 2586–2593. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ranalli, Christopher and Malcom Finlay. 2023. “What’s So Bad about Echo Chambers?” Inquiry: 1–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riccioni, Ilaria, Ramona Bongelli, Gill Philip, and Andrzej Zuczkowski. 2018. “Dubitative Questions and Epistemic Stance.” Lingua 2071: 71–95. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riccioni, Ilaria, Andrzej Zuczkowski, Roberto Burro, and Ramona Bongelli. 2022. “The Italian Epistemic Marker Mi Sa [to Me it Knows] Compared to So [I Know], Non So [I Don’t Know], Non So Se [I Don’t Know Whether], Credo [I Believe], Penso [I Think].” PloS one 17(9): e0274694. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Savolainen, Reijo. 2014. “The Use of Rhetorical Strategies in Q&A Discussion.” Journal of Documentation 70(1): 93–118. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sesagiri Raamkumar, Aravind, Soon Guan Tan, and Hwee Lin Wee. 2020. “Measuring the Outreach Efforts of Public Health Authorities and the Public Response on Facebook during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Early 2020: Cross-country Comparison.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 22(5): e19334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, Michael J. and Gary S. Marshall. 2010. “Navigating Parental Vaccine Hesitancy.” Pediatric Annals 39(8): 476–482. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spilioti, Tereza and Caroline Tagg. 2017. “The Ethics of Online Research Methods in Applied Linguistics: Challenges, Opportunities, and Directions in Ethical Decision-making.” Applied Linguistics Review 8(2–3): 163–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The jamovi project 2022. jamovi. (Version 2.3) [Computer Software]. [URL]
Van Atteveldt, Wouter, Mariken A. Van der Velden, and Mark Boukes. 2021. “The Validity of Sentiment Analysis: Comparing Manual annotation, Crowd-coding, Dictionary approaches, and Machine Learning Algorithms.” Communication Methods and Measures 15(2): 121–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wawrzuta, Dominik, Mariusz Jaworski, Joanna Gotlib, and Mariusz Panczyk. 2021. “What Arguments Against COVID-19 Vaccines Run on Facebook in Poland: Content Analysis of Comments.” Vaccines 9(5): 481. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weigand, Edda. 2017. “The Mixed Game Model. A Holistic Theory.” In The Routledge Handbook of Language and Dialogue, ed. by Edda Weigand, 174–194. New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
World Health Organization. 2019. Top ten threats to global health in 2019. [URL]
Yang, Kai-Cheng, Francesco Pierri, Pik-Mai Hui, David Axelrod, Christopher Torres-Lugo, John Bryden, and Filippo Menczer. 2021. “The COVID-19 Infodemic: Twitter versus Facebook.” Big Data & Society 8(1): 20539517211013861. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zuczkowski, Andrzej, Ramona Bongelli, and Ilaria Riccioni. 2017. Epistemic Stance in Dialogue. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zuczkowski, Andrzej, Ramona Bongelli, Ilaria Riccioni, and Gill Philip. 2021. Questions and Epistemic Stance in Contemporary Spoken British English. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Riccioni, Ilaria, Andrzej Zuczkowski & Ramona Bongelli
2025. Rhetorical questions and epistemic stance in an Italian Facebook corpus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Open Linguistics 11:1 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue