ABSTRACT
Many reasons may help Taiwan beat COVID-19. One of the secrets lies in the painful memories of the 2002 outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, known as SARS. Besides, the immediate response by the government and the public as soon as reports of a virus originating in Wuhan, China, has contributed to the success. This study attempts to provide another explanation in that the framing of the pandemic as a conflict between China and Taiwan on the social media has contributed to the success. The research question of this study: how is COVID-19 framed on social media in Taiwan? The results have shown that China has been the most discussed issue related to COVID-19 for netizens from May 9 to May 22. The analysis of the 35 articles related to China suggested that the conflict frames were often adopted. The articles have implied that COVID-19 is a knowingly created risk and most of them have been using conflict frames and responsibility frames together. Hopefully, this chapter can contribute to the discussions of the framing effects of social media in policymaking during the epidemic outbreak.
