Critical Discourse Analysis of Trump's Tweets on the Covid-19 Pandemic

Heevi  Khaled Jamel; Marwan  Abdi; Khalid  Ilias Basheer

doi:10.53754/iscs.v4i1.660

Culture

Critical Discourse Analysis of Trump's Tweets on the Covid-19 Pandemic

Heevi Khaled Jamel¹ Marwan Abdi¹ Khalid Ilias Basheer²

1 University of Duhok

2 University of Zakho

Corresponding author: [email protected]

https://doi.org/10.53754/iscs.v4i1.660

Download article

PDF

Published

30-01-2024

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2024)

Pages

21-32

Abstract

This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump's tweets regarding COVID-19, utilizing Fairclough's three-dimensional model and Halliday's systemic functional linguistics to examine the language used. The analysis centers on two tweets that illustrate Trump's politicization of the pandemic and the propagation of stigmatization through social media. The research examines the stylistic and formal characteristics of Trump's tweets, focusing on his use of metaphorical language and blame-shifting tactics, specifically his labeling of COVID-19 as a 'Chinese virus.' The analysis also investigates discourse practices, connecting Trump's rhetoric on the U.S.-China trade agreement and pandemic response to wider political narratives. The study analyzes the socio-cultural implications of Trump's discourse at a macro level. It highlights how his discourse exacerbated xenophobia, nationalism, and social divisions during the global health crisis. The findings demonstrate that Trump's tweets influenced public perceptions and international relations, reinforcing anti-China attitudes and contributing to a polarized public response to the pandemic. This study emphasizes the significance of a critical and reflective approach to political communication, particularly during times of crisis. It also offers insights into the creation and dissemination of ideological narratives in the digital era.

Keywords: Critical discourse analysis covid-19 pandemic political communication social media stigmatization

References

Allen, D. E., & McAleer, M. (2022). Trump’s COVID-19 tweets and Dr. Fauci’s emails. Scientometrics, 127(3), 1643–1655. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04243-z
Biletska, T., Havryliuk, O., Nikiforova, Y., & Galitska, E. (2023). PERFORMING COVID-19: TRUMP’S SHIFT OF RHETORICDURING THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS IN THE USA. Ezikov Svyat (Orbis Linguarum), ezs.swu.v.21.1, 85–95. https://doi.org/10.37708/ezs.swu.v21.i1.9
Catalano, T., & Wang, P. (2021). Social Media, Populism, and COVID-19: Weibo Users’ Reactions to Anti-Chinese Discourse. Studies in Media and Communication, 9(2), 58. https://doi.org/10.11114/smc.v9i2.5388
Chen, X. (2019). Critical Pragmatic Studies on Chinese Public Discourse (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429346408
Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis. In The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 9–20). Routledge.
Gölbaşı, Ş. (2017). Critical Approach in Social Research: Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis. The Online Journal of Communication and Media, 3(4), 1–18.
Jaworsky, B. N., & Qiaoan, R. (2021). The Politics of Blaming: The Narrative Battle between China and the US over COVID-19. Journal of Chinese Political Science, 26(2), 295–315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-020-09690-8
Kerbleski, E. (2019). Trump, Twitter, and the Trees: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump’s Tweets Surrounding the November 2018 California Wildfires.
Lu, R., & Sheng, Y. (2020). From Fear to Hate: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Sparks Racial Animus in the United States. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3646880
Luo, X., He, M., & Yu, Z. (2022). An Ideological Analysis of the Former President Donald Trump’s Tweets During COVID-19. Corpus Pragmatics, 6(1), 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41701-021-00113-4
Olimat, S. N. (2020). Words as Powerful Weapons: Dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 Speeches. 3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 26(3), 17–29. https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2020-2603-02
Reddy, T. (2000). Ideology, Discourse and Social Theory: André Du Toit’s Contribution to South African Studies. South African Journal of Philosophy, 19(4), 405–416. https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2000.11644286
Saad Bustan, E., & Mohamad alakrash, H. (2020). Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump’s Tweets Addressing the Middle Eastern Countries. International Journal of Future Generation Communication and Networking, 13(2), 407–414.
Wilson, J. (2015). Political Discourse. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (1st ed., pp. 775–794). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118584194.ch36
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2001). Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. SAGE Publications, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028020
Yaqub, U. (2021). Tweeting During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Sentiment Analysis of Twitter Messages by President Trump. Digital Government: Research and Practice, 2(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3428090
Zahra, M. (2019). Racism in Donald Trump’s Tweets: A Critical Discourse Analysis.
کلانتری خاندانی, ع. ا., فرخی, م. ح., & غنچه پور, م. (2019). تحلیل گفتمان انتقادی توئیت ها ی ترامپ بر اساس مدل ون دایک. زبان پژوهی, Online First. https://doi.org/10.22051/jlr.2019.20256.1545

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Indexing & Citations

How to Cite

Khaled Jamel, H. ., Abdi, M., & Ilias Basheer, K. . (2024). Critical Discourse Analysis of Trump’s Tweets on the Covid-19 Pandemic. Ascarya: Journal of Islamic Science, Culture, and Social Studies, 4(1), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.53754/iscs.v4i1.660