The study sought to provide a greater comprehension of the contending discourses and ideologies of coronavirus vaccine acceptance and reluctance in South Africa as revealed by Twitter influencer commentaries.1 Naturally occurring data generated between February 2021 and February 2022 was collected from Twitter in the form of Tweets authored by South African social media influencers. The paper utilised Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis and we found that vaccine hesitant discourses functioned as the foundations of cultural, moral and political ideologies. They constructed a reality in which the coronavirus vaccine was deemed as risky and potentially lethal. Discourses that shed light on the ideologies underpinning coronavirus vaccine acceptance included medical-scientific and familial discourses. This research contributes to scholarship on vaccine discourses in the era of social media and pandemics. The findings may provide opportunities for productive communication and intervention with the occurrence of similar divisive phenomena in digital spaces.
Al-RawiAGrepinKLiX, et al. (2021) Investigating public discourses around gender and COVID-19: A social media analysis of Twitter data. Journal of Healthcare Informatics Research5: 249–269.
2.
AlthusserL (2006) Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towards an investigation). In: SharmaAGuptaA (eds) The Anthropology of the State. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell Publishing, pp.86–111.
3.
AlvessonMKarremanD (2000) Varieties of discourse: On the study of organizations through discourse analysis. Human Relations53(9): 1125–1149.
4.
BornmanE (2016) Information society and digital divide in South Africa: Results of longitudinal surveys. Information, Communication & Society19: 264–278.
5.
BouvierGMachinD (2018) Critical discourse analysis and the challenge of social media. Review of Communication18(3): 178–192.
CanhamH (2021) Thanatopolitics and fugitive mourning in pandemic death. Social and Health Sciences19: 1–17.
8.
CanhamHM (2014) Employment equity discourses and practices of empowerment and identity in a bank. Doctoral dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
CooperSvan RooyenHWiysongeCS (2021) COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in South Africa: how can we maximize uptake of COVID-19 vaccines?Expert Review of Vaccines20(8): 921–933.
11.
DanVParisBDonovanJ, et al. (2021) Visual mis- and disinformation, social media, and democracy. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly98(3): 641–664.
12.
DewKNorrisPGabeJ, et al. (2015) Moral discourses and pharmaceuticalised governance in households. Social Science & Medicine131: 272–279.
13.
Droz-dit-BussetO (2022) “So-called influencers”: Stancetaking and (de) legitimation in mediatized discourse about social media influencers. Discourse, Context & Media49: 100629.
14.
DurmazNHengirmenE (2022) The dramatic increase in anti-vaccine discourses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A social network analysis of Twitter. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics18: 2025008.
15.
EngelbrechtR (2021) Hofmeyr still undecided on Covid-19 vaccine. The Citizen, 12September.
16.
FaircloughN (2013) Critical discourse analysis. In: Gee JP and Handford M (eds) The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis. London: Routledge, pp.9–20.
17.
FoucaultM (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977. New York, NY: Pantheon.
18.
FrebergKGrahamKMcGaugheyK, et al. (2011) Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review37(1): 90–92.
19.
GallagherM (2008) Foucault, power and participation. International Journal of Children’s Rights16: 395–406.
GrayDM (2021) Letter from South Africa – COVID-19: The good, the bad and the ugly. Respirology26: 893–894.
22.
HuckinTN (1997) Critical discourse analysis. In: MillerT (ed.) Functional Approaches to Written Text: Classroom Applications. Washington, DC: United States Information Agency, pp.87–92.
23.
JanksH (1997) Critical discourse analysis as a research tool. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education18(3): 329–342.
24.
KarunatilakeH (2021) Evidence based medicine: Ideology, hegemony, statistical gaze and beyond. Ceylon Medical Journal66(1): 5–7.
25.
KleinhekselAJRockich-WinstonNTawfikH, et al. (2020) Qualitative research in pharmacy education. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education84(1): 127–137.
26.
KlevenT (1993) Ideology as moral discourse or struggle for power. Social Philosophy Today8: 37–50.
27.
LaherSBothaA (2012) Methods of sampling. In: WagnerCKawulicBGarnerM (eds) Doing Social Research: A global context. London: McGraw-Hill, pp.86–100.
28.
LeaskJ (2020) Vaccines – lessons from three centuries of protest. Nature585(7826): 499–501.
29.
MacDonaldNE and SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy (2015) Vaccine hesitancy: Definition, scope and determinants. Vaccine33(34): 4161–4164.
ManezeDSalamonsonYGrollmanM, et al. (2022) Mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for healthcare workers: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies138: 1–14.
32.
MelletJPepperMS (2021) A COVID-19 Vaccine: Big strides come with big challenges. Vaccines9(39): 1–14.
33.
MignoloWD (2009) Epistemic disobedience, independent thought and decolonial freedom. Theory, Culture & Society26(7–8): 159–181.
34.
NdwandweDWiysongeCS (2021) COVID-19 vaccines. Current Opinion in Immunology71: 111–116.
35.
NielsenK (1980) Marxism, ideology and moral philosophy. Social Theory and Practice6(1): 53–68.
36.
PalmaryI (2011) ‘In your experience’: Research as gendered cultural translation. Gender, Place and Culture18(1): 99–113.
37.
RobertsM (2005) The production of the psychiatric subject: Power, knowledge and Michel Foucault. Nursing Philosophy6(1): 33–42.
38.
SebeeloT (2023) Diffracting the global: Exploring the implementation of WHO’s COVID-19 protocols in Sub-Saharan Africa. Insight on Africa15: 203–217.
39.
SrourAOuld-SlimaneHMouradA, et al. (2022) Joint theme and event based rating model for identifying relevant influencers on Twitter: COVID-19 case study. Online Social Networks and Media31: 100226.
VaismoradiMTutunenHBondasT (2013) Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative study. Nursing and Health Sciences15: 398–405.
42.
Van AardtW (2021) The mandatory COVID-19 vaccination of school children: A bioethical and human rights assessment. Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination12(3): 1–6.
43.
Van DijkTA (1995) Aims of critical discourse analysis. Japanese Discourse1(1): 17–27.
44.
WangHLiYHutchM, et al. (2021) Using tweets to understand how COVID-19-related health beliefs are affected in the age of social media: Twitter data analysis study. Journal of Medical Internet Research23(2): 1–15.
45.
WeismuellerJHarriganPCoussementK, et al. (2022) What makes people share political content on social media? The role of emotion, authority and ideology. Computers in Human Behavior129: 107150.
46.
WilsonSLWiysongeC (2020) Social media and vaccine hesitancy. BMJ Global Health5: 1–7.
