TY - GEN
T1 - Government communication and Internet responses: profile of Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš in selected digital media users’ comments during the COVID-19 pandemic
AU - Kleinberga, Vineta
N1 - Conference code: 13
PY - 2021/6/17
Y1 - 2021/6/17
N2 - Perceptions play a pivotal role in assessment ofefficiency of government communication. Informed by thestrategic narrative conceptual framework this study looks atperception of government communication in Internetcomments during three essential dates in conquering theCOVID-19 pandemic in Latvia: introduction of emergencysituations on March 12 and November 6, 2020, andintroduction of a curfew on December 29, 2020. The studyuncovers how often and how the main spokesperson ingovernment communication – the Prime Minister of LatviaKrišjānis Kariņš – is framed in comments of three onlinenews media in Latvia (Apollo, Delfi, Tvnet) in Latvian andRussian. Using a digital tool for online comments analysis -the Index of Internet Aggressiveness (IIA), a data set iscreated of 244 comments, containing a key word “Kariņš” invarious cases in Latvian and Russian. Qualitative contentanalysis is applied to extract and to compare the frequencyof appearance and the framing of Kariņš over the course ofthe pandemic in Latvia. The findings reveal that Kariņšappears in comments significantly more after news inLatvian than in Russian, and has been commented five timesmore in Delfi than in Tvnet and Apollo together. Thecomments in Latvian are more aggressive than in Russian,and their emotional tone increases towards the end of 2020.In majority of comments the framing is negative involvingattributes of irresponsibility, superficiality, indecisivenessand danger; yet positively framed rigidity and decisiveness ofKariņš can be observed too.IIA is an online comment analysis tool, incorporating amachine learning program, which analyses users’ commentson news on online news sites according to pre-selectedkeywords to grasp the commenters’ verbal aggressiveness. InMarch 2021 the IIA data set consists of ~25.08 millioncomments; ~ 616.62 million word usage in writtencommenting and ~ 1357.40 thousand news.
AB - Perceptions play a pivotal role in assessment ofefficiency of government communication. Informed by thestrategic narrative conceptual framework this study looks atperception of government communication in Internetcomments during three essential dates in conquering theCOVID-19 pandemic in Latvia: introduction of emergencysituations on March 12 and November 6, 2020, andintroduction of a curfew on December 29, 2020. The studyuncovers how often and how the main spokesperson ingovernment communication – the Prime Minister of LatviaKrišjānis Kariņš – is framed in comments of three onlinenews media in Latvia (Apollo, Delfi, Tvnet) in Latvian andRussian. Using a digital tool for online comments analysis -the Index of Internet Aggressiveness (IIA), a data set iscreated of 244 comments, containing a key word “Kariņš” invarious cases in Latvian and Russian. Qualitative contentanalysis is applied to extract and to compare the frequencyof appearance and the framing of Kariņš over the course ofthe pandemic in Latvia. The findings reveal that Kariņšappears in comments significantly more after news inLatvian than in Russian, and has been commented five timesmore in Delfi than in Tvnet and Apollo together. Thecomments in Latvian are more aggressive than in Russian,and their emotional tone increases towards the end of 2020.In majority of comments the framing is negative involvingattributes of irresponsibility, superficiality, indecisivenessand danger; yet positively framed rigidity and decisiveness ofKariņš can be observed too.IIA is an online comment analysis tool, incorporating amachine learning program, which analyses users’ commentson news on online news sites according to pre-selectedkeywords to grasp the commenters’ verbal aggressiveness. InMarch 2021 the IIA data set consists of ~25.08 millioncomments; ~ 616.62 million word usage in writtencommenting and ~ 1357.40 thousand news.
KW - COVID-19
KW - audience perception
KW - internet comments
KW - Kariņš
KW - Latvia
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118660885&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.17770/etr2021vol2.6571
DO - 10.17770/etr2021vol2.6571
M3 - Conference contribution
VL - 2
T3 - Vide. Tehnologija. Resursi - Environment, Technology, Resources
SP - 78
EP - 83
BT - Vide. Tehnoloģija. Resursi : 13. starptautiskās zinātniski praktiskās konferences materiāli
PB - Rēzeknes Tehnoloģiju akadēmija
CY - Rēzekne
T2 - 13th International Scientific and Practical Conference "Environment. Technology. Resources"
Y2 - 17 June 2021 through 18 June 2021
ER -