The politicization of face masks in the American public sphere during the COVID-19 pandemic
| Autor: | Amironesei, Razvan, Scoville, Caleb, Jeon, June, McCumber, Andrew |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Science
Knowledge and Technology SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Political Science|American Politics bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Theory Knowledge and Science SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Culture SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Communication Information Technologies and Media Sociology bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Sociology of Culture bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Communication SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Political Science bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Civic and Community Engagement bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Political Science SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Political Science|American Politics bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Communication SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Political Sociology |
| Popis: | This research shows how face masks became politicized during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. While differences in mask wearing behaviors between liberals and conservatives declined over the course of the pandemic, masks remained controversial in the American public sphere. We argue that political divisions over masks cannot be understood by looking to partisan differences in mask wearing behaviors alone. Instead, we show how the mask became a political symbol enrolled into larger patterns of affective polarization, defined by animosity toward the opposing party. This study relies primarily on a combination of qualitative coding and computational text analysis of a large corpus of opinion articles published during the first 10 months of 2020 (n = 7,970). It also relies on supplemental analyses of social media data (from Twitter), the transcripts of major news networks, and longitudinal survey data. We show that backlash against mask refusal—rather than mask refusal itself—was the primary way that masks took on political significance in the American public sphere. Anti-mask discourse consistently occupied a marginal role in the public sphere, while backlash against mask refusal came to prominence and did not decline even as mask wearing behaviors normalized and partly depolarized. We argue that the mask refusal backlash discourse appealed primarily to liberals and show that it was particularly resonant with national political discourses. Beyond the case, this research demonstrates how to use media data to understand how a new set of issues and objects becomes integrated into broader patterns of political polarization. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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