Antivaccine narratives in France and Italy: what ere these discourses and what forms do they take?
Les récits antivaccins en France et en Italie : En quoi consistent ces discours et quelles formes prennent-ils ?
Résumé
The development of the Covid-19 pandemic in the beginning of 2020 has spawned many narratives throughout the public sphere, mainly in the digital one, which for some of them were conspiracy theories and fake news. Including a historical perspective, this article aims to analyze the specificities of cultural contexts that can influence the anti-vaccine narratives that emerged online during the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy and France. Starting from the textual content analysis of the anti-vaccines discourse, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of demographics and culture on the spread of fake news via social media. In terms of results, French antivaccine narratives mainly refer to the mobilised and active protest organisations. On the other hand, the Italian corpus, instead, is mostly focused on feeling of mistrust towards institutions, science and vaccines. The study highlights that, despite the availability of the same scientific information in both the countries, the misinformation that fuels antivaccine narratives is the result of social and cultural constructions.