The purpose of this study is to review the discourse on vaccination from a critical perspective by considering coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) news on web portals to be practical arguments advocating for certain actions. For this purpose, this study analyzed the argument patterns of the discourse on vaccination with the keyword COVID-19 vaccine side effects and examined discourse characteristics highlighted by media reports to evaluate their meaning. Contrasting patterns were observed between pro- and anti-vaccine arguments, which consisted of the necessity of vaccination and medical evidence and which focused on personal choice and vaccine side effects, respectively. The characteristics of the political discourse were observed in the contest between these arguments. Rhetorical phrases, which are often used in the political discourse, represented the misleading arguments that lacked evidential accuracy and argumentative validity by maximizing fear, instead of alleviating fear about a health crisis with scientific information and discussion. As fake news trending on social media was introduced to online news portals, which are regarded as public discourse platforms, and undermined trust in the public discourse, it served as an opportunity to politicize the discourse on vaccination.

The aim of this study is to discuss the attributes of political discourse in political advertisements. The materials of the study are the advertisements used by candidates in the 16th and 17th Korean presidential elections. Presidential election advertising is the social practice of competing in political discourse on who is more proper for the presidency. The upper level of discourse in advertisement takes on the narrative of statements directed at the public, but argumentation about political assertions is included in it. The core of the argumentation asserts support for the candidate and backs such an assertion. A story that dramatizes the details related to the candidate or his/her policy has a big effect of gaining sympathy for the message, but on the other hand it can also lead to criticism that political issues are being dealt with only through images rather than language. Narrative, complexly constructed through spoken language, visual images, subtitles, sounds and other channels, accordingly contains various messages, but it has a strong impact ultimately by being condensed into one symbolic rhetoric, since the candidate's personality, political message, and the power to realize these-that is, all the factors the public considers in making a political choice-are included in it.

Kim, Hyun-kang. Lee, Yun-jin 2013. Analysis on the elements and properties of the discourse in the main text of Korean textbooks. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 21(1). This paper analyzes the elements and properties of the discourse in the main text of Korean textbooks. The main text conveys ‘discourse knowledge’ that constitutes the communicative competence of Korean language on the basis of the fundamental properties of discourse rather than on unnatural sentences and conversations constructed only to present vocabulary and grammar. It consists of ‘discourse type’, ‘background knowledge’, ‘language use’, and ‘conversation organization’. As a result of this research, we found that the main text contains the following properties of discourse. First, the main text whose discourse type students frequently encounter is selected and language befitting that type is used. Second, the background knowledge of the discourse is presented. Third, the conversation of the main text is organized with the turn-taking system. The characteristics as a textbook are also taken into account in the main texts that we reviewed. These comprise dealing with limited discourse patterns, regulating language use, and the regular and restricted turn-taking system. The above analysis shows that the main text is constructed utilizing both aspects of education and discourse. The findings of this study will be helpful for textbook users in developing instruction and studying strategies and for textbook developers in constructing main texts.