The influence of collective experience of nervousness and fear in the communication of youth in the internet-based discussions on the coronavirus pandemic
Abstract
The coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented phenomenon that has caused feelings of nervousness and fear in society. On the basis of selected texts being part of the Internet-based discussion on the coronavirus pandemic, which is taking place on the Czech community website for children and youth, we can prove that the collective experience of nervousness and fear of the participants of the discussion, also responding to the discourse on coronavirus pandemics found in the media, is clearly reflected in the participants’ communication behaviour and consequently also in the style of individual discussion posts. These posts are characterized by consid[1]erable stylistic stability, which testifies to the significant intertextual activity, which contributes to the formation of their own stylistic norms. These norms partly correspond to those typical of the journalistic style. This is reflected specifically in the use of the standard language, in precise and clear formulations (the authors using numerical data, terminology, citations and hypertext links). Moreover, they are often related to stereotypical formulations, caused by a high frequency of key lexemes and stable sentence patterns. This is significantly influenced by a very small range of texts, which limits the possibility of stylistic variability. The narrow range of the texts is the result of intertextual activity within the Internet discussion, as well as the expression of emotions through emoji. Due to its collective nature, emotional reactions to current events, i.e. nervousness and fear of the coronavirus pandemic, permeate across discourses and, as a communication factor – influence the communication behaviour of participants in the analysed Internet discussion. They consistently monitor current events and proclaim negative emotional reactions to events, indicating a negative trend in the pandemic. It is their shared communication strategy. The intensity of collective emotional experience might not necessarily reflect the true intensity of an individual‘s emotional relation to pandemic events, but it may reflect the effort to reach and maintain a collective consensus and virtual friendship within the discussion.
Keywords:
style, Internet discussion, emotion as style-forming factor, communication factor, intertextuality, interdiscursivity
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