Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/230673 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 2021/5
Publisher: 
Freie Universität Berlin, School of Business & Economics, Berlin
Abstract: 
This essay examines how different individual and collective actors interpreted the initial weeks of the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak from the German perspective. During this early phase, knowledge about COVID-19 was quite limited and uncertain, which also influenced the ability to assess (potential) impacts. The analysis relies on twitter data and traces the main arguments in the public German discourse between January and March 2020. It shows that actors ascribed different meanings to the outbreak - either recognizing or negating the gravity of the COVID-19 threat. Shortly before the first German lockdown, the seriousness of the COVID-19 threat had begun to feature prominently within the public discourse.
Subjects: 
Pandemic
COVID-19
social construction
discourse analysis
Twitter
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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