Crisis Narratives and Topics of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Finnish Twitter

Narratives are central to the human experience because they inform how we make sense of the complex world around us. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to stay home and avoid physical contact, narratives of the evolving crisis were actively told on Twitter. In this thesis, I analyse crisis narratives and their development on Finnish Twitter. I use a dataset of 375,322 tweets that were collected between January 2020 and August 2021. The data are analysed with the help of topic modelling, a machine-learning method that is used to discover latent topics from large collections of texts. The most common topics and their temporal distribution as well as tweets that are strongly associated with these topics are analysed within the theoretical framework of crisis and narrative studies. The results show that the most common topics were related to the measures put in place to control the spread of the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic appeared to many as a crisis of regulations rather than as a health crisis. As relatively few people were affected by the virus itself, the crisis narratives shared on Twitter were more concerned with the impact the everchanging restrictions and guidelines had on people’s everyday lives than the foreign threat imposed by the virus. These results provide insight into the ways in which crises are constructed in narrative and thus can be used to better understand how future crises emerge and evolve

LIMITS OF DISCOURSE: EXAMPLES FROM POLITICAL, ACADEMIC, AND HUMAN-AGENT INTERACTION

This contribution looks at modern discourse from two perspectives. It tries to show that the term ‘discourse’ has been expanded over the last few decades to include more phenomena and more disciplines that use it as a basis for their analyses. But it also tries to show that discourse in the sense of effective interaction has met its limits. The fundamental question is: When is discourse real discourse, i.e. more than a series of unrelated utterances and when is it coherent interactive communication? This paper does not intend to provide a new overall theoretical-methodological model, it uses examples from political discourse to demonstrate that popular discourse is often unfortunately less interactive than seems necessary, examples from academic discourse to illustrate that community conventions are being standardised more and more, and from humanoid-human discourse to argue that it is still difficult to construct agents that are recognised as discourse partners by human beings. Theoretical approaches to discuss these limits of discourse include coherence andintentionality. They can be applied to show where lack of cohesion in discourse indicates lack of cohesion in society

Aggressive Encounters & White Fragility: Deconstructing the Trope of the Angry Black Woman

Black women in the United States are the frequent targets of bias-filled interactions in which aggressors: (1) denigrate Black women; and (2) blame those women who elect to challenge the aggressor’s acts and the bias that fuels them. This Article seeks to raise awareness of these “aggressive encounters” and to challenge a prevailing narrative about Black women and anger. It examines the myriad circumstances (both professional and social) in which aggressive encounters occur and the ways in which these encounters expose gender and racial hierarchies. It then explores how the intersectional nature of Black women’s identities triggers a particularized stereotype or trope of the “Angry Black Woman” and explains how this trope is often invoked in aggressive encounters to deflect attention from the aggressor and to project blame onto the target. After discussing the harmful effects of aggressive encounters and the absence of effective legal mechanisms to address them, the Article sets forth tangible steps that individuals can take to minimize their incidence

Indigenous Language Revitalization Efforts in Canada during COVID-19: Facilitating and Maintaining Connections using Digital Technologies

This thesis explores how people involved in Indigenous language revitalization efforts in Canada have responded and adapted to the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic from March to November 2020. Through virtual interviews, an online survey, an analysis of tweets about Indigenous language revitalization in Canada, and observations of webinars among people involved in language work, this research focuses on how people have adjusted and accelerated their Indigenous language activities during a prolonged period of social isolation. Genocidal policies and practices continue to reproduce inequities for Indigenous peoples and are affecting those involved in Indigenous language work during COVID. This thesis gives examples of how people create virtual pedagogies and engage in networking and resource-sharing online with people involved in similar efforts in order to exchange experiences and advice. Online tools are instrumental in facilitating connections among Indigenous peoples and languages and they are enhanced by government accountability, support, and funding

Use It or Lose It : How Online Activism Moderates the Protective Properties of Gender Identity for Well-Being

Regardless of criticisms that online activism does nothing but increase positive feelings, there is merit to understanding the role of online activism for well-being. This research sought to integrate two separate but complimentary lines of research (the well-being effects of activism and social identity) by suggesting that online activism may enhance the ability of social identity to protect against the negative well-being consequences of pervasive discrimination. Three studies, each with different operational definitions of online activism, showed a similar pattern: online activism enhanced the relationship between gender identity and well-being. Consistent with theory on activism’s role as a dynamic predictor of social identity (e.g., Drury & Reicher, 1999), this research suggests that online activism, as a means by which social identity can be enacted, can strengthen the protective ability of social identity for well-being. Theoretical and practical implications of the benefits of online activism are discussed