The Covid-19 pandemic has spurred a variety of studies worldwide on the language used to translate scientific topics, risk, uncertainty and the need for behavior change, to a wide and diverse audience.

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The HRLab is contributing to this line of research by studying how individuals in institutional roles and newspapers have narrated the pandemic to the population. In this respect, our aim is to reflect on the implicit evaluative component in public discourse during this time of crisis:

What and how much has been asked to citizens in the name of health?

Have persuasive strategies always been aligned with democratic European values?

 

This line of research involves the creation of a corpus of texts and their analysis at the lexical and argumentative level and is conducted in collaboration with Giulia Grata (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart) and Paola Mosconi (Mario Negri Institute).

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This collaboration has produced the following publications and conference talks:

 

S. Bigi, G. Grata, P. Mosconi, Values as arguments in Italian public discourse about measures to contrast the Covid-19 pandemic, Argumentation, Rhetoric and Discourse. Perspectives on Persuasion, Università di Venezia Ca’ Foscari, 23-24 September 2021.

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This research topic is linked to the ongoing PhD project developed by Sibilla Parlato, which focuses on the reliability of texts that communicate health- and science-related information to the wider public.

It also connects to the ongoing PhD project developed by Chiara Midea, which analyses how information changes when it is conveyed by different text types and to different stakeholders.