The growth in social media use in Africa has opened new opportunities to hear from diverse voices, offering public health policymakers the opportunity to take opinions of affected populations into account in real time.
During pandemics it is difficult to continue with traditional social science research methods as lockdowns and movement restrictions prevent in-person interactions, altering normal patterns of behaviour and the ability to observe and interview people. Social media offers a new and valuable way of accessing different voices in real time, including those that often go unheard.
Analysing social media conversations can be particularly helpful when undertaking research around pandemics themselves, giving the opportunity to gain instant insight into people’s opinions and reactions to disease outbreaks and the policies designed to mitigate their effects. As internet access grows and social media becomes more popular in Africa, it provides a different space for engagement, allowing people to connect with opinions outside their own conceptual frameworks, and disrupting hierarchies of how knowledge is shaped.
Our recent research analysed Twitter conversations during the Covid-19 lockdowns to give insights into the range of narratives favoured by different organisations, stakeholders and the general public, including which of these narratives are most dominant in policy discourses.
Lockdown measures were introduced worldwide to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and several studies showed the positive impacts of these policies, including in China and Europe. Many African governments also imposed lockdowns at the beginning of the pandemic. These met with mixed reactions; some positive, but others focused on concerns about the consequences of lockdowns.
In our paper Global narratives on unequal outcomes produced by lockdown in Africa: a social science perspective on the ‘one-size-fits all’ Covid-19 response we used social listening to examine social media narratives, showing how people balanced concerns about preventing the spread of Covid-19 with other priorities. We identified six narratives:
- Covid-19 prevention is not a key priority and lockdowns should be stopped. Other issues, especially those affecting vulnerable people are more important.
- Prioritise Covid-19 in policy making. This is the big threat of our time, nothing is as important as this.
- Balance the above two narratives. Acknowledge socioeconomically determined risk alongside epidemiological risk. These things exist alongside each other, policy should not choose between saving lives and livelihoods.
- Much of Africa is poor, the pandemic is a huge risk and can make the continent a risk to the world. This is attributed to weak health systems and a lack of resources to control the pandemic so will facilitate the spread of Covid-19.
- Africa has epidemic experience, it has learnt from this and done well. The continent has low numbers of cases and is dealing with them well. Africa can make its policies successfully.
- Suspicions of motives. Suspicions about vaccinations and the source of Covid-19 and the motives behind lockdowns and government policies.
The range of narratives reflects a blindness to inequality and social difference of much decision making by policymakers. Contrary to the ‘we are all in this together’ narrative communicated so forcefully throughout Europe and North America, diseases and public health responses to them clearly discriminate, emphasising historical structural inequalities locally, nationally and globally, as well as interplaying with multiple sources of marginalisation. These and other insights from this paper can play a useful role in understanding and interpreting how social media could be included in pandemic preparedness plans.
Data from social listening and infodemiology (which identifies areas where there is a knowledge translation gap between best evidence and what most people do or believe, with the aim of improving public health) give an indicator of the sentiment of some sections of the African population as well as views on lockdowns in Africa from around the world. Social media amplifies access to different voices and the narratives that emerge during crisis situations, especially during lockdowns when normal social communication is hindered.
Social media will likely play an increasingly prominent role in keeping people connected and (mis)informed in future public health crises. There have been many innovative uses of social media during this pandemic such as crowdsourcing campaigns to gain access to opinions on policies, and as social media use grows in Africa such innovations could be usefully incorporated in the continent in the future. These insights could be included in pandemic preparedness plans for future outbreaks to promote policy decisions better aligned with the priorities and perspectives of affected populations.
The findings from our research also have important implications for the development of behaviour change communication campaigns. Platforms like Twitter have been shown to be more effective in disseminating information on issues of public concern than formal communication and marketing. As policymakers and ordinary citizens navigate health threats by drawing upon available evidence and social priorities, it is important to recognise the diversity of needs and the contradictions that can exist around health messaging and epidemic response policies.
