Moral panic on the AstraZeneca vaccine in Italy: textual analysis of newspaper headlines

Abstract

This study examines how newspaper headlines contributed to the moral panic surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccine in Italy in March 2021. Following the suspension of the vaccine in several EU countries due to a few suspicious deaths, Italy decided to discontinue only one batch for further investigation. This decision sparked widespread fear and conspiracy theories. The research analyses headlines from various political affiliations, published during the second week of March when the panic peaked. Using Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics and Kress and van Leeuwen's multimodal theory, the study focuses on the thematic structure, cohesive devices, and visual elements of the headlines to explore how they constructed and reinforced the narrative of fear.