Language, Symbolic Violence and COVID-19 Vaccination Policies in the Virtual Arena

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211028.091How to use a DOI?

Keywords

COVID-19; Critical Discourse Analysis; Government Policy; New Media; Symbolic Conflict

Abstract

The language that netizens echo or tweet via Twitter is not without meaning. Interpreting the subtle vibrations of society in the virtual world of Twitter must be carried out continuously and continuously so as not to lose the trend which is always moving, developing, and dynamic. This study examines language as a tool of legitimacy power in the Indonesian Government’s policy of the COVID-19 Vaccination program using data 516,116 Twitter with those obtained by employing the Astramaya Indonesia web crawler and analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis. The results of the study explain that public sentiment and perceptions regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, especially on Twitter, appear heterogeneous. In general, the positive camp still dominates, but there are also many negative and neutral camps. However, for the issue of the Chinese vaccine, netizen reactions tend to be negative. Interestingly, based on the data, many factors influence the perceptions of netizens, namely the opinions of figures, mass media coverage, events in other countries. Bot accounts and anonymous accounts that are suspected of being used as an agenda for setting power as a form of symbolic violence are carried out to smooth this vaccination program in Indonesia or offset the opposition which always rejects the policies of the government in power. This research also offers a demonstration of innovative ways in which technology is used in language studies on Virtual Culture.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Arief Nuryana
AU  - Andrik Purwasito
AU  - Pawito
AU  - Sudarmo
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/11/11
TI  - Language, Symbolic Violence and COVID-19 Vaccination Policies in the Virtual Arena
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference Of Education, Social And Humanities (INCESH 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 39
EP  - 50
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211028.091
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211028.091
ID  - Nuryana2021
ER  -