GOVERNMENT AND TWITTER

GOVERNMENT RESPONSES AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the response from the American government on the federal level has been lackluster and leaves a desire for a better, more proactive response. While the onset of the pandemic caught the U.S. by surprise and there was no exact way to predict its prominence, the ensuing confusion and lack of direction from the Trump Administration have made coordinating a nationwide effort against the coronavirus that much more difficult. Without taking proactive steps to enact the Defense Production Act for the production of masks and personal protection equipment, there are many health care professionals that are put at risk without the proper safeguards to protect them from the virus. Furthermore, there has not been a nationwide lock down of the country that would help distance people and allow for more practicing of social distancing. Instead, state governments and city governments have risen to the occasion to tackle the pandemic due to the lack of federal responsibilities. For example, California’s Bay Area with various countries banning together was the first implementation of shelter-at-home policies and then followed suit by Los Angeles and then with California state wide. As this power struggle between state and federal governments takes place in regards to COVID-19, the American public questioned how the federal government is playing in their lives to help them out. 

Despite the federal government implementing legislation to help give aid during this crisis to people across the country with stimulus checks, the overall impact and implications of the rhetoric of public officials can be definitely felt. A prominent case would be understanding the ways in which Donald Trump has affected national discourse on the pandemic. For example, in the beginning stages of the pandemic, the president was quick to call COVID-19 a “Chinese virus” on Twitter thus igniting debates on social media about the meaning behind this phrase. Given this wording, there is the conflation that this virus is reflective of the Chinese American community and by effect, Asian Americans as a whole. Ittefaw points out that governmental institutions “have failed to engage the public through social media networks” (Ittefaq, 2019). While American officials especially Trump have managed to successfully interact with the American public, that does not exactly translate to positive or meaningful interactions. Furthermore, Trump stated a multitude of different ideas that contradicted his own public health officials and governors such as, but not limited to Doctor Fauci, Doctor Birx, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Of these contradictions, one of the most prominent was the use of bleach as a treatment for COVID-19. Without missing a moment, public health officials advised against using bleach or ingesting it in any form. Donald Trump has expressed that sentiment and he stated he would also use the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a remedy. Even though there is no substantial evidence out yet that this drug would effectively help treat and solve COVID-19. However, people have pointed out that the performance Trump displays on Twitter confronts people “with the emotional pattern of resenting defiance” that creates a national, authentic persona that seemingly fights for the American people (Kissas, 2020).

However, given these conflicting and contradictory information being expressed at various levels of the government, there is understandable confusion amongst American society.

MANIFESTATION OF PUBLIC REACTIONS THROUGH TWEETS

With the prominent role of social media with the rise of platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, societies have turned to social media to channel their emotions and thoughts about what is going on in their daily lives. With this in mind, I wanted to specifically use Twitter as a platform that would help me elaborate and explain how people are reacting to everything going on in this pandemic. Despite Donald Trump not being the only head of state to utilize Twitter, the highly political and contentious tweets of President Trump is particularly useful for domestic and foreign policy (Schneiker, 2019). Many people recognize the importance of Twitter as a platform for people to share information and experiences with one another. Hence, Twitter becomes an important medium of “social media metrics” with many people acknowledging the amount of information both academic and non academic flowing through the social media (Díaz-Faes et. al., 2019). With this information, in this research, I examine the relationship the government has with the society it hopes to serve through investigating the ways in which the pandemic is affecting American society through hashtags and tweets on Twitter.