Examining the anti-disaster volunteer discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study aims to clarify how the sentiment toward disaster volunteers changed before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and examine the social structure underlying this change. An increase in the exclusion of social minorities was noted during the pandemic. Such exclusion occurs when the boundary between out-groups and in-groups becomes apparent. This study analysed how such exclusionary discourse changed before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on Twitter discourse toward disaster volunteers in Japan before and after the pandemic. The results showed that tweets expressing anger significantly increased during a heavy rain disaster in 2020, while those expressing anxiety increased considerably after the pandemic. The proportion of negative tweets about disaster volunteers was also found to have increased after the pandemic. Furthermore, a content analysis of the tweets suggested that the negative tweets about disaster volunteers during the pandemic were more likely to include a clear distinction between those living within or outside of the affected prefecture than between those who are infected or uninfected. This study reveals that, in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the exclusionary discourse toward disaster volunteers draws a clear boundary between “insider” and “outsider.”