COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and shaming on TikTok: A multimodal appraisal
analysis
Abstract
This article investigates the issues of vaccine hesitancy and shaming,
which arose in response to the implementation of World Health
Organization (WHO) COVID-19 recommendations, on the social media
platform of TikTok. By extending appraisal theory to include the use of
visual attitudinal appraisals, the study examines the semiotic resources
employed by TikTok users within the overarching context of the pandemic.
A total of 254 videos expressing pro- and anti-vaccination viewpoints,
posted by American and Australian users between 1 January 2021 and 31
January 2022, were extracted from the social network and subjected to a
computer-assisted analysis. The study shows that vaccine hesitancy on
the social networking service (SNS) is fuelled by the echo chamber
effect, while any vaccine shaming on the platform may be seen as
conspicuous virtue-signalling. The speakers’ evaluative language is
mostly positive, since their main objective is to elicit the approval of
members belonging to the same sub-cultural group. A few suggestions are
made to reduce the impact of echo chambers and to encourage scientific
literacy among TikTok users.