The operation of ideology in coronavirus vaccine Twitter influencer commentary

Abstract

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.