ABSTRACT
This chapter explores and demonstrates the potential and usefulness of critical discourse analysis (CDA) approaches in the analysis of fake news and disinformation to identify, explain, and challenge discursive strategies that might be used to convince audiences of false information or push the content creators’ agenda. As demonstrated in the appraisal theory and argumentation theory sections, a variety of strategies may be implemented in fake news to deceive, mislead, or simply persuade audiences to take a particular course of action. The areas of inquiry relating to fake news and disinformation that CDA has been demonstrated as capable of investigating are strategies of manipulation and persuasion and legitimation strategies for validating fake news. The medical practitioners represent the expert authority who support the claim that vaccinations are harmful. A rhetorical analysis of the fake newsletter article shows that the writer committed an ad hominem to support the claim that the public may be secretly vaccinated.
