The COVID-19 Pandemic, Twitter, and the Archetype of “Country Savior” in the Ukrainian Case
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62229/Keywords:
Archetype, vaccination, discourse, manipulation, TwitterAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has updated the attention of social scientists in the study of the role and influence of archetypes on public opinion. On social networks, Ukrainian politicians inform citizens about the fight against the pandemic. It is presented as a feat, the salvation of not only the nation, but also the world. Politicians are independently constructing an image of the hero who helps to create a vaccine or arrange its supply and save the country’s population. To establish the archetype of the hero through the discourse of vaccination, this articlea analyzed the strategies of constructing the archetype of the “country savior,” using the Greimas actantial model. As a result, the actantial categories were discovered by using the computer semantic analysis of tweets. It was found that politicians use the archetypes of the savior-industrialist (Viktor Medvedchuk), savior-inspirer (Volodymyr Zelenskyy) and savior-patron (Petro Poroshenko). A method for measuring negativism and its intensity in the messages of politicians was also proposed, and it was found that the representative of the government perceives the situation in a more positive way, while the opposition mostly negatively. It was also found that the amount of negativism and its intensity can be interpreted through the actantial models.References
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