Perceptions of blame on social media during the coronavirus pandemic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106895Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Social media users predominantly blame national governments for the coronavirus pandemic.

  • There was an explosion of conspiracy theories regarding origin and propagation of coronavirus in social media.

  • Blame attribution among the public shifts as the pandemic progresses.

  • Early restriction of information regarding the coronavirus may have led to the exponential increase in conspiracy theories.

Abstract

The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease is overwhelming resources, economies and countries around the world. Millions of people have been infected and hundreds of thousands have succumbed to the virus. Research regarding the coronavirus pandemic is published every day. However, there is limited discourse regarding societal perception. Thus, this paper examines blame attribution concerning the origin and propagation of the coronavirus crisis according to public perception. Specifically, data were extracted from the social media platform Twitter concerning the coronavirus during the early stages of the outbreak and further investigated using thematic analysis. The findings revealed the public predominantly blames national governments for the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, the results documented the explosion of conspiracy theories among social media users regarding the virus’ origin. In the early stages of the pandemic, the blame tendency was most frequent to conspiracy theories and restriction of information from the government, whilst in the later months, responsibility had shifted to political leaders and the media. The findings indicate an emerging government mistrust that may result in disregard of preventive health behaviours and the amplification of conspiracy theories, and an evolving dynamic of blame. This study argues for a transparent, continuing dialogue between governments and the public to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Keywords

Coronavirus
Covid–19
Blame
Social media
Pandemic
Twitter

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