ABSTRACT
Global health crises such as the Corona pandemic are and elusive situations that trigger uncertainty for people, and at the same time bring concrete and directly tangible consequences and effects on them. In the current context of media, characterised by an almost uncontrollable number of active users, such situations provide a fertile space for the dissemination of an untamed mass of news, in which, in addition to truthful and relevant information, disinformation is also disseminated, often proving to be a breeding ground for stigmatising and conspiratorial content. Based on a survey of the most widespread social media, this article aims to analyse the conspiratorial elements present in Covid-19 communication in Germany and Italy, specifically surveying the presence of the recurrent anti-Semitic traits that seem to characterise conspiracy theories. © 2022 Gesellschaft fuer deutsche Sprache e.V.. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
In the following article a religious conspiracy narrative will be examined from a linguistic perspective. The basis is a radio broadcast by Don Livio Fonzaga, director of the clerical station Radio Maria. In the program, broadcast on November 10, 2020, he argues that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a work of the devil and is being used by his demonic henchmen to create a new atheistic world order. After introductory remarks on the concept of conspiracy, the paper then elaborates the conspiracy narrative on the lexical, semantic, phraseological, and metaphorical level. As a conclusion, it can be stated that Don Livio Fonzaga's hypotheses and options are only argumentation surrogates that do not stand up to plausibility standards.