#NotDying4Wallstreet: A Discourse Analysis on Health vs. Economy during COVID-19

Abstract

This paper combines political/poststructuralist discourse theory with actor–network theory to explore dystopian visions in the context of a discourse around the hashtag #NotDying4Wallstreet. The call for protest against former US president Donald Trump’s demand to reopen the economy during lockdown dominates the discourse. The tweets were analyzed with quantitative discourse analysis and network analysis to identify key terms and meaning clusters leading to two main conclusions. The first (A) is an imaginary dystopic future with an accelerated neoliberal order. Human lives, especially elderly people, are sacrificed for a well-functioning economy in this threat scenario. The second (B) includes the motive of protest and the potential of the people’s demands to unite and rally against this threat. Due to the revelation of populist features, this (online) social movement seems to be populist without a leader figure. The empirical study is used to propose a research approach toward a mixed-methods design based on a methodological discussion and the enhancement of PDT with ANT. Thus, the article has a double aim: an update of contemporary approaches to social media analysis in discourse studies and its empirical demonstration with a study.

Keywords

• pandemic
• COVID-19
• populism
• discourse analysis
• network analysis
• tweets