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- Title
Religious Masking and the Rhetorical Strategies of Digital Anti-Vaccination Churches.
- Authors
Bloomfield, Emma Frances; Willes, Stephanie S.
- Abstract
We analyze the rhetorical strategies of "digital anti-vaccination churches." We argue that these groups adopt the appearance of a religious institution to gain access to vaccine exemptions, through a process we call "religious masking." Religious masking involves the impersonation of religious style and substance to "pass" convincingly as a religious institution under legal requirements. Simultaneously, the performance of masking also signals to audiences that the church functions as an anti-vaccine exemption resource. Anti-vaccination churches effectively speak to multiple audiences by drawing upon rhetorical strategies of style, consubstantiality, and agency.
- Subjects
ANTI-vaccination movement; VACCINATION; VACCINE hesitancy; RELIGIOUS institutions; IMPERSONATION
- Publication
Western Journal of Communication, 2024, Vol 88, Issue 3, p717
- ISSN
1057-0314
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.1080/10570314.2023.2174384