The Use of Certainty in COVID-19 Reporting in Two Austrian Newspapers

Abstract

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, in many parts of the Global North, the public has looked to the media as an important source of information about new developments and measures to combat the spread of the virus. The main measure propagated by governments in this respect was the mass vaccination program. In this context, two important concepts in the media coverage were herd immunity and vaccine efficacy, both of which had to be reevaluated over time. In this study, we looked at the discursive construction of “the science” in the discourse on herd immunity and vaccine efficacy in two Austrian broadsheet newspapers. Our corpus-based analysis showed a tendency to overuse linguistic items implying certainty in the face of a very fast-changing, and thus uncertain, situation. We also found evidence that these two Austrian media outlets no longer function as corrective of power, but have taken on the role of mediators of sanctioned government narratives. We argue that the uncritical reporting of government narratives in such a fluid situation has led to unresolved and unreflected inconsistencies in the reporting, arguably decreasing the public’s trust in the accuracy of the COVID-19 information presented in the media.