The (Re)Creation of Self-Identity in Times of Crises

Abstract

Press releases are official (electronic) statements written by corporations and institutions to deliver significant information to the media and the general public. Although theoretically informative, press releases are a self-promotional tool because the pieces of information they deliver are produced by the organization – the source – that writes the press release. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the source of information as linguistically realized in terms of evidentiality and patterns of agency in AstraZeneca’s press releases delivered during the pandemic. More specifically, this paper will offer a corpus-based analysis of all the press releases (62) issued by AstraZeneca during the pandemic to identify the patterns of agency and evidentiality, with the purpose of detecting the extent to which, if any, the company (re)construct its image before and after the deaths supposedly linked to Covid vaccine. The results seem to indicate that different rhetorical and persuasive strategies, as well as image restoring strategies, are employed: while promotion may require booster devices, hedging devices are necessary whenever the press release seems over-confident in the conveying of the pieces of information. As usual, caution is necessary not only to diminish negative face threats but also to prevent possible attacks from future investigations denying cognitive consensus.