New Zealand's pandemic news coverage was infused with nationalism, creating a sense of competition and framing Covid-19 as a global contest the country was winning, a University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka study shows.
Emma Anderson
Lead author Emma Anderson, PhD candidate in Otago's Bioethics Centre, says while an inward approach can help foster a sense of national identity, it comes at the cost of helping the global community.
"On one hand, a nationalist approach encouraged people to follow public health rules and contribute to New Zealand's success in keeping illnesses and deaths low.
"On the other hand, this strong 'New Zealand first' focus tended to obscure the idea that there was a responsibility to help people in other countries and made it harder to support and cooperate on global efforts to tackle the pandemic.
"Tension between looking after one's own people and helping the world led to issues such as unequal vaccine distribution, which ultimately made the pandemic last longer for everyone," she says.
The study, published in the Journal of Public Health Ethics, analysed 1,300 pandemic news articles from 19 different New Zealand newspapers, published between the start of 2020 and the middle of 2022.
"The news media shapes and is shaped by people's perspectives. How the media portrays the nation during a pandemic is important to understand as nationalism, specifically health nationalism, can undermine the effectiveness of global response efforts."
Four main themes emerged, showing a strong national focus in the news coverage:
A focus on home: Domestication was the most common theme, found in nearly three-quarters of the articles. News stories overwhelmingly concentrated on New Zealand's situation, such as the local economy and daily case numbers. There was very little coverage of how the pandemic was affecting other specific countries or the world as a whole.
Team New Zealand: More than half the articles included the theme of unification, which aimed to create a sense of national unity. This was often done by using words like 'we' and 'us' to make everyone feel like they were in it together.
Defending the borders: About one in five articles used the idea of securitisation, talking about the pandemic as if it were a war. The virus was treated as an enemy threat that New Zealand had to defend itself against. This was seen in the heavy focus on border controls and the use of military-style language. For instance, leaders talked about the need to 'bunker down' to 'fight to save New Zealanders' lives'.
Us versus them: The theme of separation, which became more common over time, involved creating a divide between New Zealanders and 'others'. This created a sense of an 'in-group' (New Zealanders) and an 'out-group' (non-New Zealanders), which can lead to less concern for the well-being of 'the other.'
Mrs Anderson believes the research points to a gap between New Zealand's image as a generous and fair nation and the reality, identifying actions that prioritised domestic interests.
"For the public, understanding how these national stories are told is an opportunity to reflect on New Zealand's role on the world stage and ensure that its actions align with its values."
In the future, the researchers believe political leaders and public health experts should choose a different focus for the next global health crisis.
"Rather than appealing to nationalism to build solidarity for a public health response, they should instead appeal to our collective humanity to focus rhetoric and resources on those in greatest need."
Publication details
Nationalism in New Zealand media during the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed methods study
Emma Anderson, Elizabeth Fenton, John Crump
Journal of Public Health Ethics
