The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated issues with mental healthcare the world over. The spread of the virus led to a huge increase in cases of affective disorders among both members of the public and those working on the Covid frontline. Usually, these symptoms can be relieved through clinical treatment. However, such direct intervention became impractical, even impossible, during Covid. At an individual level, symptoms such as confusion and emotional isolation can translate to anxiety, depression or panic. This, in turn, can lead to people not following directives, such as isolation or vaccination, and affect the pandemic response at a community level. At a time when the number of adults reporting affective disorder symptoms increased threefold, this raises the need for alternative approaches to emotional support – the provision of care, concern, empathy, love and trust – to help both the mental health resilience of the public and the effectiveness of Covid-19 crisis management. Social media might seem an unlikely mediumwith which to provide emotional support. It is traditionally considered to have an adverse effect on mental health, potentially leading to social isolation, anxiety and depression. However, online emotional support can have a buffering effect on mental health – it provides a safe space where recipients feel heard and can express their feelings. It offers an alternative solution to address mental health disorder issues – especially important when professional treatment and medical resources are not widely available. This is particularly pertinent in times of stress and sadness. During events such as Covid, this is also true on a collective level. Apart from providing information, we found that the public relies on social media – especially official government accounts – for emotional support. Our research looked at how government social media accounts in China attempted to provide emotional support for the population. We collected data from the early stages of the pandemic until, at that time, it was under control in China, and then into the start of the second wave in June 2020. This was the first crisis to be addressed by the Chinese government at least partially by social media instead of through more traditional means. The government tended to post information first on social media instead of on websites, TV or radio. People were refreshing their social media accounts to find out what was happening. We analysed 61,297 posts from 17 Weibo accounts officially operated by Information Offices of 17 provincial administrative units. Each account 48 |
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