Making it internally persuasive: Analysis of the conspiratorial discourse on COVID-19

This study attempts to generate new insights into the wide spread online and offline conspiratorial discourse on COVID-19. Twofold analytical lens consisted of narrative interrelations framework and content analysis showed how the linguistic resources and conversational such as popular socio-religious discourses, hypothetical narratives, personal narratives, personal mental archives, and interpolated arguments are integrated in the interpretation of intertextual Bases such as Bill Gates' TED talk 2015 (26%); Nematullah Wali's predictions (32%); 'End of Days' book by Sylvia Browne (14.9%); and 'The Eyes of Darkness' novel by Dean Koontz (22%) by which the conspiracists in Pakistan construct an internally persuasive discourse promoting conspiracy theories on COVID-19. Several linguistic resources such as mood, modality, topicalization, insinuation, and intertextuality emerged as the main tools of making the conspiracy theories internally persuasive.

Automated summary

This study utilizes a narrative interrelations framework and content analysis to explore the integration of linguistic resources and conversational cues in the interpretation of intertextual bases, leading to the construction of internally persuasive conspiracy theories on COVID-19 by conspiracists in Pakistan. Linguistic resources such as mood, modality, topicalization, insinuation, and intertextuality emerged as the main tools used in making these conspiracy theories internally persuasive.