The Influence of Social Media Platforms on COVID-19 Discourse
Title – Pandemic Synthesis Paper For Language Socialization
The paper performs a synthesis of information and knowledge that is shared in research articles to study about the socialization of language and through language encompassing the social media platforms use during COVID-19 pandemic. The course of human development in the cultural context of worldwide pandemic and the impact of COVID-19 is being critically analyzed in this paper to acquire a better understanding and sense of the social media interaction across culture. According to authors, the social media platforms have been instrumental in influencing people during COVID 19 either by spreading misinformation or debunking the claims of these sources, thus in a way informing people of the current practices (Chan et al.). The paper addresses the semiotic landscape and the way it has been used by politicians, medical workers, digital organizations as well as ordinary people to influence others. The purpose of the paper is to understand the instrumental role of language in establishing discourse during COVID-19 especially with the free internet giving space to everyone to represent and influence.
Discourse and politics during COVID-19
Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and others have contributed largely in making people aware of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on politics, economic, health of the public, environment and others. However, the discourse observed in many social media platforms have been identified as highly influential in terms of political and social relevance. Misleading and false claims have been observed more than often on social media platforms influence communities and groups against government, institutions and practices. One such example is #FilmYourHospital on social media which as identified as a conspiracy theory on Twitter. People were encouraged to visit the local hospital and take videos of MT hostels and pictures to prove that COVID-19 pandemic was a hoax. “After the initial boost by a few prominent accounts, the campaign was mostly sustained by pro-Trump accounts, followed by a secondary wave of propagation outside the U.S.” (Gruzd and Mai). After the evaluation of the prominent accounts that spread and gave boost to the Single tweet making it a movement supporting conspiracies theory during COVID-19 was of political members.
Semiotic landscape in social media
Semiotic landscape is significant when it comes to sharing of sentiments, hashtags, keywords that are related to COVID-19 does being a trending social media platform issue. When exploring the Coronavirus discourse, it has been observed that there has been specific stereotypical representation as well as essential sharing of information helping people become more aware regarding public health. For example, city’s such as Vancouver use their ethnography in terms of implementing social distancing as well as keeping each other safe where the government issued official signs around trails, parks and other areas. “Set within the context of the immediate out-break of the pandemic, the study focuses on how official signs created by the provincial government contributed to the regulation of spatial order in public areas,” (Yao, p.6). This signs have not been mis-interpreted in terms of excluding individuals instead it has been converted into establishing practice that support social distancing and lock down. Encouraging the relationship between the government and the public has been one of the most important requirements of the semiotic landscape of COVID-19.
The Significance of Semiotic Landscape during COVID-19 Pandemic
Highly transmissible nature of misinformation
With the increasing spread of information on social media platforms from the onset of COVID-19 virus that was first identified in China in late 2019, it has been observed that just like the virus information and misinformation about it has rapidly spread across the globe. The social media usage was increased leading to transmitting of misinformation having negative effects on public health, both physical and mental. For example, one of the conspiracy theories that has been observed in frequent use of phrases such as “China virus” and Chinese virus” in Twitter activities. This impacted the social relational structures destabilizing the society and its function during a brutal pandemic. “Conspiracy theories promoting the pandemic as a hoax or as a bio-weapon designed by sinister forces are associated with reduced containment-related behavior.” (Forati and Ghose, p.2). The false information spreading fast during a period of crisis is the way of causing social unrest especially when the talk of losing liberties and freedom arises. The miss information dissemination online has created serious problems across the globe impacting diverse cultures and groups leading to online and offline protests, riots and aggressive online interactions.
Use of humorous memes, signs, texts and symbols during the COVID-19 has become coexistent with the practical information of daily reports which discusses infection numbers and death toll. This can be identified as dark humor however; the actual relevance can be found in terms of the current political and social issues that the people are airing about on social media through these discourse materials. “Through the reference to the acclaimed Netflix series, the author of the sign observed the similarity between the surreal (and yet strangely familiar) dystopian world depicted in Black Mirror and the US election results.” (Dynel, p.178) this is a sharing of a serious opinion and public perspective on the surreal yet relatable dystopian world of Netflix series “Black Mirror” while the picture dates back to President Trump’s victory in 2016 election which was equally unbelievable yet it was happening.
(Source: Dynel, p.178)
Figure 1: meme
The voicing out of opinions or notions through discourse materials that can be humorous or funny is the new representation of intertextual relevance and interaction on social media. Sharing the memes or the signs across social medial platforms repeatedly leads to the context of “dialogism of the word” where borrowing and merging is the current practice.
Social media platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic have become an optimum place for spreading misinformation which can be identified as one of the major threats to the public mental health. Due to the social distancing and quarantine aspects of COVID-19, social media platforms receive lot of traffic leading to serious challenges in the form of deliberate attempts in spreading misinformation leading to preventing advancement of medical agendas of individuals and groups. One of the major issues that was taken up on social media platforms was “uptake of COVID-19 vaccines” from March 1st, 2020 to March 1st, 2021 leading to amplification of conspiracy theorists’ voices waylaying the public regarding the health concerns and impacts. Even though there are people who are present on social media, checking the facts and clearing the misinformation yet the misuse of the platform is excessive in undermining the public health related information. The author states “Despite the considerable presence of fact checkers in terms of their absolute numbers, misinformation spreaders are much better coordinated and strategic.” (Yang et al.). This reflects the obscurity through which coordinated attacks, conspiracy theories as well as fringe beliefs has worsened the problem during COVID 19 directly impacting the mental health of the people.
Misinformation and Its Negative Impact on Public Health during COVID-19
A threatening global crisis and social media platforms has been rightfully used by medical workers in terms of showing the potential ways in which people can be safer and take precautions during Covid 19 pandemic. The global health care workers have heavily contributed to the overall growth and development by providing reliable information and spreading it across the globe about critical infection control issues. “During the SARS epidemic, worldwide internet access was well established, yet gaining access to potential medical users was largely reliant on email contact and personal communication.” (Chan et al. p.1579). It is the practice of communication through social networks that has helped individuals come together and resolve the threatening global issues as well as misinformation being spread.
In my opinion, COVID-19 and the discourse developed around it has been dependent on language socialization on a major scale considering it has influenced social and political factors. Many communities and organizations have represented and interpreted social media platform discourses both positively and negatively. Spreading of misinformation has led to serious grievances during the crisis of COVID-19 leading to impacts on public health issues. There have been misuse of right to speak and express on social media platform where conspiracies theories, fringe beliefs and other aggressive inter-textual interactions has misdirected individuals who were in severe need of information. However social media platforms have been used by doctors informing a large number of people in a very limited point of time on the current uses of treating COVID-19 as well as other related information. There have been people on social media who have been debunking the misinformation however it needs to be a collaborative effort so that we can make a real change through language discourse.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be stated that there are limitations to social media platforms and it can easily be used to spread misinformation however it is one of the effective and fast services that contributes to sharing of information and providing services. Content and context specific facilitation is easily available through inter-textual discourse on social media platforms. Language socialization can therefore be identified as one of the major elements that has been effective during COVID-19 pandemic using the social media platforms. The substantial interaction and sharing of information that has taken on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and others reflects the significance of language socialization and its impacts on political and social issues.
Chan, Albert KM, et al. “Social media for rapid knowledge dissemination: early experience from the COVID?19 pandemic.” Anaesthesia (2020).
Dynel, Marta. “COVID-19 memes going viral: On the multiple multimodal voices behind face masks.” Discourse & Society 32.2 (2021): 175-195.
Forati, Amir Masoud, and Rina Ghose. “Geospatial analysis of misinformation in COVID-19 related tweets.” Applied Geography 133 (2021): 102473.
Gruzd, Anatoliy, and Philip Mai. “Going viral: How a single tweet spawned a COVID-19 conspiracy theory on Twitter.” Big Data & Society 7.2 (2020): 2053951720938405.
Yang, Aimei, et al. “The battleground of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on Facebook: Fact checkers vs. misinformation spreaders.” Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review (2021).
Yao, Xiaofang. “Face masks, materiality and exclusion in the COVID-19 semiotic landscape.” Social Semiotics (2021): 1-21.
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