Exploring vaccination debates through corpus assisted discourse analysis: The MMR vaccine debate and its relevance to the Covid-19 pandemic

The volume explores the newspaper coverage of the MMR vaccine-autism debate in a selection of British newspapers - both broadsheets and tabloids - up to 2019. The analysis is grounded in corpus-assisted discourse analysis and focuses on the construction of medico-scientific debates, on newsworthiness and poliphony in the so called "post-truth era". It also explores the discursive representation of medico-scientific evidence, and the (de)legitimising strategies used to frame the social actors participating in the discourse. One chapter in the volume also focuses on the role played by medico-scientific and anectodal evidence in argumentative narratives. The analysis further shows important connections with the newspaper coverage of medico-scientific news during the COVID-19 pandemic.