Nationalism in New Zealand Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the complex interplay between national self-interest and global cooperation. Media communication can contribute to the formation of national identity and promote nationalist themes, particularly in times of crisis. Media portrayals of the nation during a pandemic are informative, since nationalism, specifically health nationalism, may undermine the popular appetite for and effectiveness of global response efforts. We sought to investigate whether nationalist sentiment was present in COVID-19 reporting in New Zealand media. Using qualitative and quantitative thematic analysis, we identified nationalist themes in the New Zealand media during the COVID-19 pandemic and observed how they changed over the course of the pandemic. We randomly selected 1300 articles from 19 New Zealand newspapers from January 2020 to June 2022. We identified four nationalist themes in New Zealand media reporting during the pandemic: domestication, unification, securitization, and separation. The emergence of nationalism in New Zealand media during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important consideration when developing public health policy. While nationalist sentiments in New Zealand media during the COVID-19 pandemic provided a foundation for domestic solidarity, we argue that balancing these approaches with cosmopolitan appeals to collective humanity would support policies and responses that address both local needs and global inequities.