Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Journal of Visual Political Communication
  4. Volume 11, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 11, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2633-3732
  • E-ISSN: 2633-3740

Abstract

This article analyses the type and style of the UK government social media messaging during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic using multimodal and social semiotic analysis. Images improve health communication by increasing comprehension of information, enhancing recall of instructions, encouraging positive self-protective attitudes and behaviour and are beneficial to those with low health literacy skills. When done well, visual material can meaningfully improve health outcomes. UKGov’s social media during COVID-19 reveals that production of mental noise and feed flooding can affect perceptions of risk. Recognizing the impact that both visuals and social media campaigns can have in crisis communication, this article first explores the steps in creating the social communication and then analyses social media posts during the first four months of the pandemic from UKGov Facebook and Instagram accounts. This article employs a multimodal social semiotic methodology to organize, code and make sense of the often contradictory and ambiguous meanings contained in a vast trove of visual data. Ultimately, this article argues that the UKGov’s ‘scattergun’ approach to the first wave COVID-19 infographics enhanced polysemic meanings and flooded social media feeds with ‘shitposting’ philosophy, which decreased clarity of understanding and potentially impacted health literacy amongst the UK populous.

© 2024 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jvpc_00037_1
2024-09-16
2025-04-17
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abrams, D., Broadwood, J., Lalot, F. and Hayon, K. D. (2021), ‘People largely perceive local government communications about Covid 19 as embodying greater honesty, credibility, and empathy than those of the UK government’, LSE Blog, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/112085/1/politicsandpolicy_government_communication.pdf. Accessed 6 May 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Austin, L., Liu, B. F. and Jin, Y. (2012), ‘How audiences seek out crisis information: Exploring the social-mediated crisis communication model’, Journal of Applied Communication Research, 40:2, pp. 188–207.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bowman, D. and Roe-Crines, A. S. (2023), ‘The end of the rhetorical line? The “PartyGate” investigation into former UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’, Political Quarterly, 94:3, pp. 475–80.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Bright, S. (2020), ‘How two right-wing meme merchants scored a £3million government coronavirus contract’, Byline Times, 23 July, https://bylinetimes.com/2020/07/23/how-two-right-wing-meme-merchants-scored-a-3-million-government-coronavirus-contract/. Accessed 6 May 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Cameron, D. and Panović, I. (2014), ‘Chapter 8: Multimodal discourse analysis’, in D. Cameron and I. Panović (eds), Working with Written Discourse, London: Sage.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. CampaignLive (2021), ‘Best use of paid social’, 4 May, https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/best-use-paid-social/1714767. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  7. Campbell, D. (2020), ‘NHS staff told to “wear aprons” as protective gowns run out’, The Guardian, 17 April, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/nhs-staff-to-be-asked-to-treat-coronavirus-patients-without-gowns. Accessed 6 May 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Cheng, Y. (2016), ‘How social media is changing crisis communication strategies: Evidence from the updated literature’, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 26:1, pp. 58–68.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Coombs, W. T. (2014), ‘State of crisis communication: Evidence and the “bleeding edge”’, Research Journal of the Institute of Public Relations, 1:1, pp. 1–12.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Cordis (2020), ‘The government’s Covid-19 awareness campaign’, 28 May, https://cordiscreative.com/blogs/the-governments-covid-19-awareness-campaign/. Accessed 4 May 2024.
  11. Dagnall, N., Drinkwater, K. G., Denovan, A. and Walsh, R. S. (2020), ‘Bridging the gap between UK government strategic narratives and public opinion/behaviour: Lessons from Covid19’, Frontiers in Communication, 5:71, pp. 1–8, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00071/full. Accessed 6 May 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Davies, A. (2021), ‘The 24-hour meme machine: What the US election can teach Australia about digital campaigning’, The Guardian, 6 January, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/06/the-24-hour-meme-machine-what-the-us-election-can-teach-australia-about-digital-campaigning. Accessed 6 May 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Diers-Lawson, A., Omondi, G. and Hiller, S. L. (2021), ‘Shooting from the hip or taking careful aim?’, Journal of Visual Political Communication, 9:1, pp. 59–97.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Dzhurova, A. (2020), ‘Symbolic politics and government response to a national emergency: Narrating the Covid-19 crisis’, Administrative Theory and Praxis, 42:4, pp. 571–87.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Ekwall, P. E., Ädel, A. and Höög, C. N. (2021), ‘Towards a unified affordance approach: Searching for congruent meaning making in Covid-19 warning designs’, Social Semiotics, 33:5, pp. 1069–90.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Falkum, I. L. and Vicente, A. (2015), ‘Polysemy: Current perspectives and approaches’, Lingua, 157, pp. 1–16.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Farey-Jones, D. (2021), ‘Sexist covid-19 ad linked to digital agency Topham Guerin’, CampaignLive, 29 January, https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/sexist-covid-19-ad-linked-digital-agency-topham-guerin/1705931. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  18. Foy, S. (2020), ‘Government struck £119m Covid advertising deal weeks before first lockdown’, The Telegraph, 25 October, https://web.archive.org/web/20210130012954/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/10/25/government-struck-119m-covid-advertising-deal-weeks-first-lockdown/. Accessed 6 May 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Gill, K. A. and Lennon, H. (2022), ‘Conformity through fear: A multimodal discourse analysis of COVID-19 information adverts’, Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines, 14:1, pp. 22–24.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Glik, D. C. (2007), ‘Risk communication for public health emergencies’, Annual Review of Public Health, 28:1, pp. 33–54.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Government Digital Service (GDS) ([2018] 2023), ‘Social media playbook’, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/social-media-playbook. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  22. Greer, T. (2022), ‘Thoughts on the shitpost diplomacy’, The Scholar’s Stage, 22 February, https://scholars-stage.org/thoughts-on-shitpost-diplomacy/. Accessed 6 May 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Hall, S. (1973), ‘Encoding and decoding in the television discourse’, discussion paper, Birmingham: University of Birmingham.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D. and Platow, M. J. (2011), The New Psychology of Leadership: Identity, Influence and Power, New York: Psychology Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Hern, A. (2019), ‘BBC podcast’s attempt to define “shitposting” leaves viewers baffled’, The Guardian, 22 February, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/08/confusion-after-bbc-podcasts-attempt-to-define-shitposting-laura-kuenssberg. Accessed 6 May 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Hill, R., Pickford, R., West, S. and Potter, A. (2020), ‘Communications and the Covid-19 pandemic: Rapid insights from practitioners and research’, C19 National Foresight Group and Nottingham Trent University, September, https://www.ntu.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/1177902/NTU-C19-NFG-Report-0920-Communications-and-the-Covid-19-Pandemic-Rapid-Report.pdf. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  27. Houts, P. S., Doak, C. C., Leonard, G. D. and Loscalzo, M. J. (2006), ‘The role of pictures in improving health communication: A review of research on attention, comprehension, recall, and adherence’, Patient Education and Counseling, 64:1&3, pp. 393–94.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Indie SAGE (2020), ‘UK government messaging and its association with public understanding and adherence to COVID-19 mitigations: Five principles and recommendations for a Covid communication reset’, 13 November, https://www.independentsage.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Messaging-paper-FINAL-1-1.pdf. Accessed 2 May 2024.
  29. Iu, M. (2020a), ‘Government media spend on Covid-19 messaging hits £100m via MG OMD’, Campaign Live, 12 November, https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/govt-media-spend-covid-19-messaging-hits-100m-via-mg-omd/1699691. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  30. Iu, M. (2020b), ‘Government spends £78m via MullenLowe and MGOMD for Covid19 messaging’, Campaign Live, 7 October, https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/govt-spends-78m-via-mullenlowe-mg-omd-covid-19-messaging/1696436. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  31. Iu, M. (2021), ‘Government spent more than £184m on Covid comms in 2020’, Campaign Live, 7 March, https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/govt-spent-184m-covid-comms-2020/1708695. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  32. Jetten, J., Reicher, S., Haslam, S. A. and Cruwys, T. (2020), ‘The need for a social identity analysis of COVID-19: Introduction to “Together Apart”’, Social Science Space, 4 June, https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2020/06/the-need-for-a-social-identity-analysis-of-covid-19-inrtoduction-to-together-apart/. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  33. Jones, B. and Macdonald, E. (2023), ‘Look into my lies: The strategic use of photography in UK Gov’s 2021 coronavirus campaign’, in D. Lilleker and A. Veneti (eds), Research Handbook on Visual Politics: Political Science and Public Policy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 370–80.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Kim, K. D. and Kreps, G. L. (2020), ‘An analysis of government communication in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic’, World Med Health Policy, 12:4, pp. 398–412.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Knight, P. (2020), ‘OmniGov’s Paul Knight on the Covid-19 comms frontline and trips to Whitehall’, Campaign Live, 14 May, https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/omnigovs-paul-knight-covid-19-comms-front-line-trips-whitehall/1683191. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  36. Kress, G. and Van Leeuwen, T. (2006), Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, Abingdon: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Laswell, H. (1948), ‘The structure and function of communication in society’, in L. Bryson (ed.), The Communication of Ideas, New York: Institute for Religious and Social Studies, pp. 37–51.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Liu, B. F. and Fraustino, J. D. (2014), ‘Beyond image repair: Suggestions for crisis communication development’, Public Relations Review, 40:3, pp. 543–46.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Mohamed, S. (2021), ‘An analysis of risk communication by the Finnish and Scottish government on Twitter during the Covid19 pandemic’, master’s thesis, Tampere: Tampere University, https://trepo.tuni.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/136066/MohamedSainab.pdf?sequence=2. Accessed 9 August 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Moore, R. (2020), ‘The UK government’s coronavirus strategy: Shoddy by design?’, The Guardian, 14 June, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jun/14/the-uks-government-coronavirus-strategy-shoddy-by-design. Accessed 6 November 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Morgan, M. (2020), ‘Why meaning-making matters: The case of the UKGovernment’s Covid-19 response’, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 8:8, pp. 270–323.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Newton, K. (2020), ‘Government communications, political trust, and compliant social behaviour: The politics of Covid-19 in Britain’, The Political Quarterly, 91:3, pp. 502–13, https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1111/1467-923X.12901.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Nielsen, R. K., Fletcher, R., Kalogeropoulos, A. and Simon, F. (2020), ‘Communications in the coronavirus crisis: Lessons for the second wave’, Reuters Institute, 27 October, https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/communications-coronavirus-crisis-lessons-second-wave. Accessed 24 April 2024.
  44. Oliver, D. (2020a), ‘Covid 19 highlights the need for effective government communications’, BMJ, 369: 8245, https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1136/bmj.m1863.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Oliver, H. (2020b), ‘The memeing of life: An interview with digital campaign whizzes Sean Topham and Ben Guerin’, The Spin Off, 9 April, https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/04-09-2020/the-memeing-of-life-an-interview-with-digital-campaign-whizzes-sean-topham-and-ben-guerin. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  46. Santis, E. L. and Zavattaro, S. M. (2019), ‘Performative ethics in the Trump era: a postmodern examination’, Public Integrity, 21:5, pp. 503–11.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Siani, A. (2024), ‘Mixed messages, broken trust, avoidable deaths: A critical appraisal of the UK government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic’, Open Health, 5:1, https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1515/ohe-2023-0016.
     [Google Scholar]
  48. Somers-Joyce, C. (2024), ‘Government by WhatsApp: A fetter on scrutiny?’, The Constitution Society, 15 March, https://consoc.org.uk/government-by-whatsapp/. Accessed 18 May 2024.
  49. Sridharan, M. (2022), ‘Rule of three’, Think Insights, 27 April, https://thinkinsights.net/consulting/rule-of-three/. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  50. Taplin, J. (2017), Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
     [Google Scholar]
  51. Watson, I. (2021), ‘One year later: The inside story of the UK government’s Covid Comms’, The Drum, 10 March, https://www.thedrum.com/news/2021/03/10/one-year-later-the-inside-story-the-uk-government-s-covid-comms. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  52. Watson, J. (2019), ‘Shitposting: What is it? How does it work? And is it just a race to the bottom?’, LinkedIn Pulse, 15 November, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/shitposting-what-how-does-work-just-race-bottom-jonny-watson. Accessed 6 May 2024.
  53. Whelan, P. (2020), ‘Are we entering the era of shitposting as a valid communications tactic?’, DTW, 3 August, https://www.dtw.co.uk/news/are-we-entering-the-era-of-shitposting-as-a-valid-communications-tactic/. Accessed 6 May 2024.
/content/journals/10.1386/jvpc_00037_1
Loading
The shitposting scattergun approach: A multimodal analysis of the first wave COVID-19 social media messaging from UKGov
Journal of Visual Political Communication 11, 27 (2024); https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1386/jvpc_00037_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jvpc_00037_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jvpc_00037_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): crisis response; government communication; government social media; graphic design analysis; Instagram analysis; social semiotic analysis; UK COVID-19 response; visual analysis

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test