Liberalists and data-solutionists: redefining expertise in Twitter debates on coronavirus in Finland

Väliverronen, Esa; Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Jauho, Mikko; Jallinoja, Piia

doi:10.22323/2.19050210

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(47 reference statements)

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“…The mass media's role in this is clear. These media drive distrust by exposing the public to massive quantities of information about risk of which they would formerly never have been aware [37]. At the same time, they also enable the growth of public contestation of expert authority, and the rise of social media has driven us to a new level of information dissemination, which is faster and less controlled than ever before.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Claiming Credibility in Online Comments: Popular Debate Surrounding the COVID-19 Vaccine

Breeze

2021

Publications

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At times of crisis, access to information takes on special importance, and in the Internet age of constant connectedness, this is truer than ever. Over the course of the pandemic, the huge public demand for constantly updated health information has been met with a massive response from official and scientific sources, as well as from the mainstream media. However, it has also generated a vast stream of user-generated digital postings. Such phenomena are often regarded as unhelpful or even dangerous since they unwittingly spread misinformation or make it easier for potentially harmful disinformation to circulate. However, little is known about the dynamics of such forums or how scientific issues are represented there. To address this knowledge gap, this chapter uses a corpus-assisted discourse approach to examine how “expert” knowledge and other sources of authority are represented and contested in a corpus of 10,880 reader comments responding to Mail Online articles on the development of the COVID-19 vaccine in February–July 2020. The results show how “expert” knowledge is increasingly problematized and politicized, while other strategies are used to claim authority. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of sociological theories, and some tentative solutions are proposed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Claiming Credibility in Online Comments: Popular Debate Surrounding the COVID-19 Vaccine

Breeze

2021

Publications

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“… 8 In the case of the latter, prioritising transparency and the rationale for decision making (including evidence, ie, used in decision making) can prove effective when communicated with empathy. 9 Postpandemic protocols should anticipate disagreement to emerge at many levels, for example, due to the contestation of available data and/or expertise 10 11 ; the legitimacy of decision making 12–14 and competing values, 6 15 16 especially in areas that can cut across a range of policy areas and disciplinary boundaries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital public health leadership in the global fight for health security

et al. 2023

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The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to prioritise mature digital health and data governance at both national and supranational levels to guarantee future health security. The Riyadh Declaration on Digital Health was a call to action to create the infrastructure needed to share effective digital health evidence-based practices and high-quality, real-time data locally and globally to provide actionable information to more health systems and countries. The declaration proposed nine key recommendations for data and digital health that need to be adopted by the global health community to address future pandemics and health threats. Here, we expand on each recommendation and provide an evidence-based roadmap for their implementation. This policy document serves as a resource and toolkit that all stakeholders in digital health and disaster preparedness can follow to develop digital infrastructure and protocols in readiness for future health threats through robust digital public health leadership.

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“…Even with the absence of hard lockdowns, Finland observed early on reasonably strict and comprehensive public health safety measures that have enjoyed relatively strong public support in representative surveys (Jallinoja & Väliverronen, 2021). However, restrictions have not been without their vocal critics, particularly on Twitter (Väliverronen et al, 2020), with two particularly visible campaigns-local flavours of the global "Zero-Covid" and "World Wide Demonstrations" movements-advocating for more stringent elimination of the disease, and for the lifting of all restrictions, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting the Covid-19 Consensus: Connective Action of Pseudoanonymous Accounts on Finnish Twitter

Heikkilä

Laaksonen

Väliverronen

2023

SPIR

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Recent years have witnessed invigorated debate about the contradictions of identity-concealing public participation and its influence on democratic deliberation and policy-making. Some have documented the exploitation of misrepresented identities for manipulation, including the manufacturing and disrupting of political discourses. Others argue that pseudonymous speech fosters less conformist and more secure public spaces for critical social commentary and political activism. In this study, we extend this dichotomy by approaching pseudoanonymous online action as connective action; as focused and communicative political activism aimed to contest the authorities’ Covid-19 response during the pandemic in Finland. Our empirical analysis uses the historical Twitter data, over 4.2 million tweets, by pseudoanonymous Twitter accounts predominantly tweeting about Covid-19 (n = 229). Using mention and retweet networks combined with profile metrics and qualitative reading of tweets filtered through the network analysis, we explore the networked activity of these accounts, the strategies they have employed to contest authorities, and their connections to political actors and other more organized forms of mobilization around Covid-19. The preliminary analysis highlights the prominence of these accounts in Covid-19 related Twitter discussions, along with their distinct behavioural features. Pseudoanonymous accounts average shorter lifespans and higher deactivation rates. Some accounts have transitioned from named accounts towards identity-concealing action during the observation period. Further, our analysis reveals a symbiotic relationship between the pseudoanonymous accounts and the established Covid-19 movements. We argue that pseudoanonymous participation is an increasingly emblematic form of connective action afforded by social media platforms, particularly fitted to undermine the legitimacy of authorities.

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Liberalists and data-solutionists: redefining expertise in Twitter debates on coronavirus in Finland

Cited by 12 publications

References 30 publications

Claiming Credibility in Online Comments: Popular Debate Surrounding the COVID-19 Vaccine

Claiming Credibility in Online Comments: Popular Debate Surrounding the COVID-19 Vaccine

Digital public health leadership in the global fight for health security

Contesting the Covid-19 Consensus: Connective Action of Pseudoanonymous Accounts on Finnish Twitter

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