15:00 - 16:40
P4
Room:
Room: South Room 223
Panel Session 4
Ofra Klein - The visual contestation of freedom during the COVID-19 pandemic
Anne-Kathrin Stroppe, Heidi Schulze - Do Conspiracy Beliefs Foster Anti-Elite Sentiment? A Joint Framework Analysing Telegram Protest Communication und Panel Survey Data
Jiaqi Zheng - Temporary versus persistent influence in crisis communication: Analyzing Twitter communication during the early stages of COVID-19 in Japan
Cristina Monzer - Dimensions of cultural resonance: Covid-19 political vaccination debate on Facebook in Germany and Romania
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The visual contestation of freedom during the COVID-19 pandemic
P4-1
Presented by: Ofra Klein
Ofra Klein 1, Nadine Hesse 2
1 Scuola Normale Superiore
2 Europa-Universität Flensburg
The discussions surrounding the measures against the COVID-19 pandemic are strongly dominated by the concept of “freedom”. Discussions on freedom focus on different aspects: the freedom of movement during a time of lockdowns, the freedom to access spaces without a digital green certificate, the freedom to make your own decision with respect to taking the vaccine and the freedom to freely express your views on COVID matters on social media. The proposed paper explores how the value of freedom has become contested on Instagram over the course of the pandemic. The study carries out a manual content analysis of images on Instagram in six European countries. It analyzes not only how salient the conflict over freedom is, but also the form that this conflict takes, meaning the way in which this conflict over freedom is represented visually and how it is portrayed symbolically.