Levels of Warning in the Text Messages Sent by the Saudi Ministry of Health during COVID-19 Pandemic

Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 12. Number4 December 2021

21 Pages Posted: 4 Jan 2022

Date Written: December 2021

Abstract

With the beginning of the Corona pandemic at the beginning of 2019 and its rapid spread, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was among the countries that moved very quickly to address this matter. All state institutions played the role related to them. Saudi Ministry of Health launched an intensive package of warning, awareness, and guidance in the form of text messages through multiple electronic platforms to reach the largest segment of society. The study took three sources to collect data, three telecommunications companies, the official account of the Ministry of Health on Twitter and the official website of the Ministry. The current study was based on analyzing these messages in terms of warning levels in various speech acts according to the theories of Austin and Searle, in addition to analyzing the content in terms of its relationship to the actual text and the objective context. The study tried to seek the warning levels in the messages which were classified into three sections: high, moderate, and low and identified the types of actions that represent the levels. The significance of the study lies in revealing how language is used to raise the level of awareness in society. Based on the research methods, this study is analytical and descriptive, based on the theory of speech acts in its foundations, and the development of a reference model for analyzing warning levels that depend on the type of action and its implications, taking into account the indirect speech acts. The results of the study concluded that there is a clear discrepancy in the use of speech verbs to express the three levels of warning.

Keywords: COVID-19, levels of warning, Saudi Ministry of Health, speech acts, telecommunications, text messages, Twitter

Suggested Citation

Abdulrazzaq Alhabuobi, Thanaa, Levels of Warning in the Text Messages Sent by the Saudi Ministry of Health during COVID-19 Pandemic (December 2021). Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 12. Number4 December 2021 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3998655 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3998655

Thanaa Abdulrazzaq Alhabuobi (Contact Author)

Taibah University ( email )

Medina
Saudi Arabia

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