Maintenance Notice

Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Who will be affected?

Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Date Submitted: Jun 19, 2020
Date Accepted: Sep 7, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Oct 14, 2020

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

COVID-19 and the Gendered Use of Emojis on Twitter: Infodemiology Study

Al-Rawi A, Siddiqi M, Smith J, Morgan R, Wenham C, Vandan N

COVID-19 and the Gendered Use of Emojis on Twitter: Infodemiology Study

J Med Internet Res 2020;22(11):e21646

DOI: 10.2196/21646

PMID: 33052871

PMCID: 7647473

COVID-19 and the gendered use of emojis on Twitter

  • Ahmed Al-Rawi; 
  • Maliha Siddiqi; 
  • Julia Smith; 
  • Rosemary Morgan; 
  • Clare Wenham; 
  • Nimisha Vandan

ABSTRACT

Background:

This study explores how people of different genders (e.g. men, women, and sex and gender minorities) are discussed in relation to COVID-19 through Twitter emojis. We collected over 50 million tweets referencing the hashtags #Covid-19 and #Covid19 for a period of more than two months in early 2020.

Objective:

This study focuses on how people of different genders (e.g. men, women, and sex and gender minorities) are discussed in relation to COVID-19 through Twitter emojis. It asks the following research question: What are the gendered types of sentiments and meanings expressed with emojis with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic and how does emoji use differ when associated with different genders? We argue, that by exploring how the experiences of men, women, and sex and gender minorities in relation to COVID-19 are discussed using emojis, we can understand how emoji use represents and/or perpetuates (often inequitable) gender norms, roles, and relations in response to COVID-19, as well as how the pandemic may be impacting gender differently. Thus, analysis of emojis can provide a new methodological approach for rapid gender analysis in crisis settings, complementing more traditional forms of gender analysis through surveys or interviews.

Methods:

Using a mixed method, we first extracted three datasets containing tweets that reference men, women, and sexual/gender minorities and then we analysed emoji use along each gender category.

Results:

We identified five major themes in our analysis including: (1) morbidity fears, (2) health concerns, (3) employment and financial issues, (4) praise for frontline workers, and (5) unique gendered emoji use. Further, results indicate that the majority of emojis are overwhelmingly positive in nature along the different genders, but sexual and gender minorities, and to a lesser extent women, are discussed more negatively than men.

Conclusions:

This study examined the gendered use of emojis on Twitter in relation to COVID-19, and the findings showed many differences alongside discourses of men, women, and gender minorities when certain topics were discussed such as death, financial and employment matters, gratitude, and health care, while there are several unique gendered emojis that are used to express specific issues like community support. In general, emojis are positively associated with men while more negatively connected to sexual/gender minorities and to a lesser extent women. Clinical Trial: N/A


 Citation

Please cite as:

Al-Rawi A, Siddiqi M, Smith J, Morgan R, Wenham C, Vandan N

COVID-19 and the Gendered Use of Emojis on Twitter: Infodemiology Study

J Med Internet Res 2020;22(11):e21646

DOI: 10.2196/21646

PMID: 33052871

PMCID: 7647473

Download PDF


Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.