Abstract
This thesis explored how COVID-19 was debated on Twitter in Aotearoa, New Zealand, during one week of July 2023. Tweets were collected using keywords and the advanced search function on Twitter, identifying 580 relevant tweets. Reflexive thematic analysis and discourse analysis were used to understand the social construction of the COVID-19 debate on Twitter and the information and meaning reflected in the tweets.
COVID-19-related debate on Twitter illustrated a diverse range of understandings of the pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand. Of the 580 tweets included in the analysis, 38.1% of tweets were posted by only 4.5% of accounts, indicating that there is a small group of users who posted frequently. The analysis found that Twitter users used techniques of two main categories, described in the thesis as “expert imitating” and “emotional language”. These techniques were used to persuade readers that a tweet was important or accurate. Debate among Twitter users criticised health experts or the government and their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conspiracy theories were also present in the online debate about COVID-19- related government policy. Differing opinions throughout the Twitter debate revealed the social and political polarisation of users, where debate sometimes became uncivil towards fellow Twitter users and public figures involved in Aotearoa New Zealand’s COVID-19 response.
These findings reflect an overarching discourse of distrust in official sources of information. They suggest the potential for this distrust of government and news media in Aotearoa New Zealand, combined with misinformation, to damage social cohesion and hinder public health advocacy. Social media is a rich source of health-related information, opinions, and misinformation, and there is an opportunity for further research to investigate social media’s influence on public health attitudes and beliefs about public health.