Examining government leaders’ COVID-19 pandemic management in the information age: A content analysis of netizens’ reactions on Twitter

¹ School of Government (SoG) & UUM – Research Institute for Indonesia, Thailand & Singapore (ITS), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Malaysia
² Ghazali Shafie Graduate School of Government (GSGSG), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Malaysia
³ Faculty of Business and Communication, INTI International University, Malaysia
⁴ KCS Entrepreneur cum Independent Researcher, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: kahchoon@uum.edu.my / kclow85uum@gmail.com

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on governments worldwide, necessitating swift and effective responses to contain the virus. The widespread use of social media platforms, including Twitter, has provided a channel for netizens to both praise and criticise their government’s pandemic management efforts. This study aimed to investigate netizens’ reactions to the Malaysian government leaders’ management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the information age. Qualitative methods were employed with 135 Twitter users selected as respondents using purposive sampling to gather their reactions to the government leaders’ pandemic management. An observation approach and content analysis were used to analyse the tweets posted by netizens between March 2020 and October 2022. This study revealed that netizens portrayed diverse reactions to the government leaders’ failure to implement the Movement Control Order (MCO) and carry out law enforcement in Malaysia, as evidenced by the trending hashtag (#hashtag) on Twitter. Based on the findings, several strategies for reinventing pandemic management in the information age of social media were recommended to policymakers to address the challenges faced by government leaders.