MANIPULATIONS AND SANCTIONS AROUND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC:

ANALYSIS ON THE CONTROVERSIES OF ISOLATION MODELS

Abstract

The sudden arrival of COVID-19 in Brazil required a prompt structuring of strategies to address the pandemic. Using French semiotics as a theoretical framework. Our objective is to determine which mechanisms of manipulation and sanction are triggered by discourses about COVID-19 to persuade their enunciatees to adhere between two theses: horizontal isolation or vertical isolation. The corpus corresponded to the clipping of two debates on CNN Brasil, available on the YouTube. The enunciators of the first thesis used intimidation and seduction as a manipulation strategy in the first video, and seduction and provocation in the second. The enunciators maintained a certain uniformity in their discourses: total seclusion or leaving home to work, hence avoiding economic collapse. Both discoursers make use of the idea of a lethal threat. The threat of hunger becomes an argumentative strategy apparently more effective than the deadly action of the virus.