Othering discourse online in the UK during a time of crisis: a case study of opinion expressed on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic

<p dir="ltr">During major public crises, racially motivated blame is common when ethnic minorities are portrayed by the mainstream media as ‘others’ to whom blame is ascribed. In response to crises, social media platforms such as Twitter (currently X) are often used by the public to discuss social issues and share opinions. Taking COVID-19 as an example of a major public crisis, recent studies on blaming discourse on social media have examined public opinions on Twitter, with the majority of the literature focused on the US context. There is little research on blaming minorities on social media during the pandemic in the UK, a country with a relatively high level of ethnic and religious diversity. This case study collected and analysed UK-based tweets which contained keywords from the pandemic in order to determine whether there was othering discourse toward minorities and if so, what opinions and sentiments about minorities were expressed? The results reveal the existence of both positive narratives towards ethnic and racial communities and blaming discourses on Twitter, with the supporting narratives outweighing the negative discourses. Though the overall sentiment is negative when Twitter users referred to minorities, the themes identified from topic modelling and thematic analysis are mostly sympathetic and supportive towards ethnic and religious minorities in the UK. Our findings illustrate the complexity and non-linearity of discourses on ethnic and racial minorities one can find online and on social media in particular, and have implications for understanding the blaming of minorities on social media during crises more generally.</p>