ArticlePloS one2020
Framing COVID-19: How we conceptualize and discuss the pandemic on Twitter.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 48 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 295 citations in OpenAlex.
- Well-being in the time of COVID-19: Do metaphors and mindsets matter?International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2022Trial
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- Regional and temporal patterns of partisan polarization during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and Canada.PloS one · 2026Article
- Notes from Self-Isolation: Imagination in Times of Ruptures.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2025Article
- Analyzing Reddit Social Media Content in the United States Related to H5N1: Sentiment and Topic Modeling Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Public Health Advocacy in Times of Pandemic: An Analysis of the Medicare-For-All Debate on Twitter During COVID-19.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Linguistic patterns in pandemic-related content: a comparative analysis of COVID-19, Constraint, and Monkeypox datasets.Frontiers in artificial intelligence · 2025Article
- Twitter Analysis of Health Care Workers' Sentiment and Discourse Regarding Post-COVID-19 Condition in Children and Young People: Mixed Methods Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Correction: Framing COVID-19: How we conceptualize and discuss the pandemic on Twitter.PloS one · 2024Article
- Who works on the 'frontline'? comparing constructions of 'frontline' work before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Applied Corpus Linguistics · 2023Article
- Agenda-Setting for COVID-19: A Study of Large-Scale Economic News Coverage Using Natural Language Processing.International journal of data science and analytics · 2023Article
- COVID-19 crisis management of German ICU clinicians in leadership - a metaphor analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Exploring pandemic metaphors in educational contexts: a survey on the language of teachers and educators in Reggio Emilia, Italy.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- COVID-19 as WATER? The functions of WATER metaphors in the metaphorical representation of COVID-19.PloS one · 2023Article
- Crises information dissemination through social media in the UK and Saudi Arabia: A linguistic perspective.PloS one · 2023Article
- The Road Less Traveled: How COVID-19 Patients Use Metaphors to Frame Their Lived Experiences.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- How Has COVID-19 Impacted Our Language Use?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- COVID-19 in Memes: The Adaptive Response of Societies to the Pandemic?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- How Portuguese Health Entities Used Social Media to Face the Public Health Emergency during COVID-19 Disease.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Doing 'our bit': Solidarity, inequality, and COVID-19 crowdfunding for the UK National Health Service.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Doctors and nurses in these weeks and months are busy in the trenches, fighting against a new invisible enemy: Covid-19. Cities are locked down and civilians are besieged in their own homes, to prevent the spreading of the virus. War-related terminology is commonly used to frame the discourse around epidemics and diseases. The discourse around the current epidemic makes use of war-related metaphors too, not only in public discourse and in the media, but also in the tweets written by non-experts of mass communication. We hereby present an analysis of the discourse around #Covid-19, based on a large corpus tweets posted on Twitter during March and April 2020. Using topic modelling we first analyze the topics around which the discourse can be classified. Then, we show that the WAR framing is used to talk about specific topics, such as the virus treatment, but not others, such as the effects of social distancing on the population. We then measure and compare the popularity of the WAR frame to three alternative figurative frames (MONSTER, STORM and TSUNAMI) and a literal frame used as control (FAMILY). The results show that while the FAMILY frame covers a wider portion of the corpus, among the figurative frames WAR, a highly conventional one, is the frame used most frequently. Yet, this frame does not seem to be apt to elaborate the discourse around some aspects involved in the current situation. Therefore, we conclude, in line with previous suggestions, a plethora of framing options-or a metaphor menu-may facilitate the communication of various aspects involved in the Covid-19-related discourse on the social media, and thus support civilians in the expression of their feelings, opinions and beliefs during the current pandemic.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.