Health messages during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of the framing of health messages and the response of the public

Health is a concept that is prevalent in today’s society. Health messages and campaigns are continuously spread in the media. The quest for health has become performative through specific behavioural actions and the purchase of health-improving products. The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a new type of health messages. The health crisis sparked responses not only from institutional organisations but also from commercial organisations. Commercial organisations feel the need to be involved in the conversation as the pandemic also affects them internally and externally. The new health messages raise the question of how organisations, both institutional and commercial, respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The present research explores how institutional and commercial organisations respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in their campaigns. In particular, this study seeks to understand how organisations use the concept of taboo to frame their message. Additionally, this research aims to uncover the main themes in the response of the public. The sample consists of ten videos (five institutional campaigns and five commercial campaigns) that were published on official YouTube channels and the accompanying comments. A mixed-methods approach was used to explore the content of the campaigns. Semantic network analysis was used to visualise the linguistic patterns in the transcript, and multimodal critical discourse analysis was used for an in-depth analysis. The YouTube comments were analysed using thematic analysis. Regarding the conceptual framework of taboo, this study found two overarching strategies through which taboo is exemplified in the campaigns. The first overarching strategy is the appeal to community feeling, and the second strategy is the visibility of taboo. The health measurements are continuously visually and textually reiterated. Positive and negative traits are attributed to objects and certain behavioural practices. The public response to the campaigns was both positive and negative. Positive comments supported the campaign and health measurements. The negative comments expressed disagreement with the campaign and often did not belief the severity of the pandemic. This thesis concludes that organisations use their campaigns to adjust the behaviour of the public by reiterating the health measurements set by government institutions. Furthermore, the message of the campaigns is framed using the concept of taboo. Lastly, the public’s response is mainly mixed. This thesis contributes to the understanding of campaigns published during the COVID-19 pandemic.