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Article published In:
Computer-mediated communication in class: Fostering access to digital mediascapes
Edited by Stefania Maci and Marianna Lya Zummo
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 10:1] 2024
► pp. 94–113

Developing digital health literacy amidst the Covid-19 infodemic

| University of Bari Aldo Moro
| University of Bari Aldo Moro
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the concurrent infodemic highlighted the urgent need to develop autonomous and advanced reading skills for an increasingly complex and ambiguous world. Particularly, in this context, there appears to be a tension between people seeking clear, authoritative information and advice on the internet, and health experts giving recommendations, actively defining the boundaries of their (in)expertise by formulating (un)certainty that is such a prevalent feature of this novel virus. Our claim is that possible evidence of a creditable source online emerges when the healthcare professional describes their (in)expertise through a systematic deployment of a wide range of warranting strategies, while claiming authority in a limited field of knowledge (Richardson 2003). Our analysis addresses the expert online formulation of (un)certainty focusing on a daily coronavirus podcast, i.e., Coronacast. Through a corpus-assisted discourse analysis, this study uncovers the major types of warranting strategies used by the health hosts in a corpus containing only episodes where there is an expert guest and/or a link to scientific sources. Deeper understanding of how healthcare providers/health podcasters use warranting strategies may make a meaningful contribution to the repertoire of tools useful for identifying un/reliable messages in an increasingly digitalized world.
Keywords: (un)certainty, creditability, health literacy, coronavirus podcast, warranting strategies
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Materials and methods
    • 2.1Analysis of warranting strategies
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1Referring to sources
    • 3.2Drawing upon personal experience
    • 3.3Using a personal contact as an expert
    • 3.4Using oneself as an expert
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 9 February 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00128.mag
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