ORCID

0009-0005-5910-401X

Keywords

vaccine, hesitancy, Arabic, theory, CDS, trend.

Subject Categories

Communication | International and Intercultural Communication | Mass Communication

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy — the state of uncertainty about vaccination — poses global public health challenges, undermining efforts to prevent infectious diseases. It is also a contextual phenomenon, shaped by social and political forces. While survey-based research on vaccine hesitancy is abundant both globally and in the Arab world, humanities-oriented approaches using discourse analysis remain limited especially in Arabic on social media: some have tracked trends on Twitter, but virtually none have done so on Facebook. This dissertation addresses these gaps through a multimethod design combining Textual and Trend Analyses and Critical Discourse Study. It examines vaccine-related trends and discourses among Arabic-speaking users on X and Facebook, across public health, social, and political dimensions. The findings reveal interconnected drivers of vaccine hesitancy. Public health institutional policies and trends eroded trust both globally and nationally. On social media, algorithmic design, misinformation, and conspiracy narratives amplified hesitancy by limiting exposure to credible information. Racially biased policies were enforced, and speed was prioritized over accuracy. Politically, leaders played a role in producing and spreading misinformation. Lastly, legacies of colonialism, ongoing neocolonial dynamics, and fraught encounters with Western-driven modernity fueled resentment toward global health institutions and local governments perceived as subservient to Western interests — both of which emerged as significant drivers of vaccine resistance. Notably, outright rejection of science did not appear a meaningful factor in this dataset. Rather, consistent with global trends, Arabic-language social media users' attitudes toward vaccines proved largely circumstantial — shifting in response to public health and political developments instead of reflecting fixed beliefs.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Bruce Janz

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Format

PDF

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

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