Eine Diskursanalyse Der Zeitungsmeldungen Über Den Covid-19 Impfstoff in Kenianischen Und Deutschen Zeitungen

Abstract

In the wave of a pandemic, knowledge is what helps people construct reality and live through the uncertainties. Since Covid-19 virus was declared a pandemic, many turned to the media for information. This work is a comparative study seeking to analyse how two newspapers reported about the covid-19 vaccine. More specifically, the applied linguistic tools of analysis to show how the two newspapers reported on the Covid-19 vaccine. Topics can be described either positively or negatively. The work compares 16 articles selected from two newspapers, one from Kenya and one from Germany. 8 articles from Daily Nation and 8 articles from the Frankfurter Allgemein Zeitung. The two newspapers have been selected because they are identified as liberal newspapers. The two newspapers are also the most widely read in the two countries and can be accessed online. The work uses the Critical Discourse Analysis by Siegfried Jaeger. Critical Discourse Analysis seeks to identify how knowledge manifests itself in language. Knowledge is the result of a specific historical or cultural condition. Moreover, knowledge is always perspectival. Language plays a central role in showing how meanings are anchored. Through analysing the linguistic aspects of the language used in the selected newspaper articles, one can see the extent to which language has shaped the collective knowledge on the Covid-19 vaccine. Critical discourse analysis has also been used to show how language creates knowledge and reality. As part of the Covid-19 vaccine discourse, the information in the newspapers has helped people to structure complex reality and orient themselves in the world. Through the language and linguistic tools of analysis present in the newspaper, findings show to what extent the experts, governments and different actors are advocating for the use of the Covid-19 vaccine. This study is a contribution to applied linguistics as it explores to what extent language can be used by different actors to create reality, influence decisions and to push an agenda.