A Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis of Public Attitudes Towards the Prime Minister's Covid-19 Announcements

The language used by world leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic differs significantly from that of peacetime. Under the movement control order, public responses to leaders' speeches occurred primarily through online platforms like social media. These responses reflect citizens' approval or disapproval of the measures and support implemented by the government. This study examines Malaysian public responses on Facebook to COVID-19 announcements made by the 8th Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin. Utilising corpus and discourse analysis techniques, more than 18,000 comments were extracted and examined. Two distinct groups of comments were identified: Reactions to Initiatives (RTI) and Reactions to Regulations (RTR). These comments were mainly analysed using keyword analysis. Findings show that more positive responses were identified with speeches concerning initiatives. These included emotional responses, such as sedih and sebak, and expressions of appreciation like "love you" and "thank you." In contrast, negative responses were linked to speeches discussing rules and regulations. Responses in this group of comments included sarcasm, the use of derogatory terms like barua, and references to wider political contexts. The findings are limited by their primarily quantitative focus with minimal qualitative examination. Therefore, a future study should delve into closer text analysis. Despite these limitations, the study contributes to an understanding of how political discourse shifts during a crisis and the public's reaction to it, and it highlights the role of corpus analysis in mapping sentiment within online crisis communication.