The social construction of risk: Representing Covid-19 related risk via WhatsApp.

Even in front of risk awareness, there is not always the willingness to act or to change one's lifestyle habits by responding effectively. Understanding the social construction of risk (SCR) can help to grasp this gap. This means, in the social representation (SR) theory, to approach the complexity of the meanings made of risks by people positioned within specific social contexts, and conceptualise lay readings of risk as forms of thinking based on common sense and generated in communication. During the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular in the lockdown periods, social media have become a privileged medium for interpersonal communication. Social media contribute to the SCR both by fostering the circulation of existing SRs of risks, and interpersonal interactions, also becoming means of construction. The present contribution aims at exploring the SCR related to the Covid-19 pandemic starting from the analysis of informal exchanges via WhatsApp, collected during the first part of 2020 and one year later (12936 exchanges). First, the content of SR has been analysed through a topic detection technique. Then emotional objectification and anchoring have been individuated. Results will be discussed reflecting on the role of SRs in preventing or fostering effective responses to risk.