#StayHome – A pragmatic analysis of COVID-19 health advice in Saudi and Australian tweets

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine how the government departments of health in Saudi Arabia and Australia provided health advice to the public through Twitter during the COVID-19 crisis. To this end, 100 Saudi and 100 Australian tweets were analysed by using Martínez-Flor’s (2003) advice linguistic realization strategies typology and an adapted version of Trosborg’s (1995) coding scheme for internal modifiers. The external modifiers that emerged in the data were also examined. The results showed a general tendency to use direct advice-giving strategies among Saudis and Australians. Statistical comparisons showed that Saudis used significantly more direct advice-giving strategies and external modifiers than Australians while Australians employed significantly more conventionally indirect strategies and internal modifiers than Saudis.