Publication details
The Nervousness and Fear of Coronavirus Pandemic as a Communication Factor: A Stylistic Analysis of Discussion Posts of Youth
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented event that has caused feelings of nervousness and fear in society, especially in the first wave. In the texts of a chosen internet discussion, which takes place on a Czech website for children and youth, we can prove that the collective experience of nervousness and fear of participants in the discussion (also reacting to the coronavirus media discourse) is reflected in their communication behavior and consequently also in the style of selected discussion posts. These posts are characterized by considerable stylistic stability, which testifies to a significant intertextual activity that contributes to the formation of their own stylistic norms. These norms partly correspond to the journalistic style norms – it is reflected specifically in the use of the standard language and precise and clear formulations (authors use numerical data, terminology, citations and hypertext links). Related to this, in the posts there are stereotypical formulations, caused by the high frequency of key lexemes and stable sentence patterns. This is significantly influenced by the very small range of texts, which limits the possibility of stylistic variability. Due to its collective nature, emotional reactions to the current events – nervousness and fear of the coronavirus pandemic – permeate across discourses and, as a communication factor, influence the communication behavior of participants in the chosen internet discussion. The participants consistently monitor current events and proclaim adverse emotional reactions to these events indicating a negative trend in the pandemic. In fact, it is their shared communication strategy. The intensity of collective emotional experience might not necessarily reflect the true intensity of an individual's emotional relation to pandemic events, but it may reflect the effort to reach and to maintain a collective consensus and virtual friendship within the discussion. |
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