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ABSTRACT
COVID-19 lockdowns compelled an increased use of information and communication technologies within the home, allowing users to remotely retrieve information and socially connect with one another. However, there was the inherent risk that lockdowns could amplify digital inequalities, especially among low-income ethnic minorities who had higher hesitancy to adopt COVID-19 interventions and poorer clinical outcomes from COVID-19 than the general population. Guided by the culture-centered approach, the present study explores experiences of information and communication technologies and information seeking during a COVID-19 lockdown among Afghan refugee women. We draw from 37 in-depth interviews with community members to show how information and communication technologies offered a means for social connection but simultaneously could (re)produce marginality and communication inequality, with some residents struggling to access information amidst the pandemic. The findings inform a discussion about the role of information and communication technologies as health resources among Afghan refugees that is situated amidst local interplays of culture and structure.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Malene Missel et al., “It’s Not Just a Virus! Lived Experiences of People Diagnosed With COVID-19 Infection in Denmark,” Qualitative Health Research, 31, no. 5 (2021): 822.
2 Åsa Engström et al., “The Meaning of Critical Illness for People Suffering From COVID-19: When a Frightening Unreality Becomes Reality,” Qualitative Health Research, 32, no. 1 (2022): 135–44; Christian Bröer et al., “From Danger to Uncertainty: Changing Health Care Practices, Everyday Experiences, and Temporalities in Dealing With COVID-19 Policies in the Netherlands,” Qualitative Health Research, 31 no 9 (2021): 1751–63.
3 For example, see: Christine Elers et al., “Negotiating Health Amidst COVID-19 Lockdown in Low-Income Communities in Aotearoa New Zealand,” Health Communication 36, no. 1 (2021): 109–15; Steven P. Philpot et al., “Qualitative Findings on the Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Australian Gay and Bisexual Men: Community Belonging and Mental Well-being,” Qualitative Health Research 31, no. 13 (2021): 2414–25.
4 Minh Hao Nguyen et al., “Changes in Digital Communication During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic: Implications for Digital Inequality and Future Research,” Social Media + Society 6, no. 3 (2020): 1–6.
5 Christian Fuchs, Communicating COVID-19: Everyday Life, Digital Capitalism, and Conspiracy Theories in Pandemic Times (Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 2021), 22.
6 Amber Pahayahay and Najmeh Khalili-Mahani, “What Media Helps, What Media Hurts: A Mixed Methods Survey Study of Coping With COVID-19 Using the Media Repertoire Framework and the Appraisal Theory of Stress,” Journal of Medical Internet Research 22, no. 8 (2020): e20186; Wendy E. Ellis, Tara M. Dumas, and Lindsey M. Forbes, “Physically Isolated But Socially Connected: Psychological Adjustment and Stress Among Adolescents During the Initial COVID-19 Crisis,” Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue Canadienne Des Sciences Du Comportement 52, no. 3 (2020): 177–87; Bei Ju, Hai Min Dai and Todd Sandel. “Struggling in Im/Mobility: Lived Experience of Macao’s Mainland Chinese Migrant Laborers via WeChat Moments during COVID-19.” Communication, Culture and Critique (2022).
7 Piper Liping Liu, “COVID-19 Information Seeking on Digital Media and Preventive Behaviors: The Mediation Role of Worry,” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 23, no. 10 (2020): 677–82.
8 World Health Organization. “Munich Security Conference,” February 15, 2020, https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/munich-security-conference
9 Micah Tan, Paulin Tay Straughan, and Grace Cheong, “Information Trust and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Amongst Middle-Aged and Older Adults in Singapore: A Latent Class Analysis Approach,” Social Science & Medicine 296 (2022): 114767.
10 John Lai and Nicole O. Widmar, “Revisiting the Digital Divide in the COVID-19 Era,” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 43, no. 1 (2021): 458.
11 Hayley S. Thompson et al., “Factors Associated With Racial/Ethnic Group–Based Medical Mistrust and Perspectives on COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Participation and Vaccine Uptake in the US,” JAMA Network Open 4, no. 5 (2021): e2111629.
12 Michael D. Niño et al., “Trajectories of COVID-19 Vaccine Intentions Among US Adults: The Role of Race and Ethnicity,” SSM-Population Health 15 (2021): 100824; Don E. Willis et al., “COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Race/Ethnicity, Trust, and Fear,” Clinical and Translational Science 14, no. 6 (2021): 2200–07.
13 Bernadette N. Kumar et al., “Reducing the Impact of the Coronavirus on Disadvantaged Migrants and Ethnic Minorities,” European Journal of Public Health 31, no. 4 (2021): iv9–13.
14 see: Mohan J. Dutta, Communicating Health: A Culture-Centered Approach (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008).
15 Rhys Jones, “Covid-19 and Māori Health: ‘The Daily 1pm Briefings Have Been an Exercise in Whiteness’,” The Spin Off, May 13, 2020, https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/13-05-2020/covid-19-and-maori-health-the-daily-1pm-briefings-have-been-an-exercise-in-whiteness/
16 Kumar et al., “Reducing the Impact of the Coronavirus on Disadvantaged Migrants and Ethnic Minorities,” iv9–13.
17 Nguyen et al., “Changes in Digital Communication During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic,” 1–6.
18 This research gap was also noted in one of the only articles examining this topic, see: Bei Ju et al., “Struggling in Im/Mobility: Lived Experience of Macao’s Mainland Chinese Migrant Laborers via WeChat Moments during COVID-19.”
19 See: Dutta, Communicating Health
20 Mohan J. Dutta, Communication, Culture and Social Change: Meaning, Co-option and Resistance (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
21 Phoebe Elers, Mohan J. Dutta, and Steve Elers, “Culturally Centring Digital Inclusion and Marginality: A Case Study in Aotearoa New Zealand,” New Media & Society 24, no. 2 (2022): 311–27.
22 Dutta, Communicating Health
23 Phoebe Elers et al., “Explorations of Health in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Low-Income Suburbia,” Health Communication 36, no. 12 (2021): 1453–63.
24 Elers et al., “Negotiating Health Amidst COVID-19,” 109–15.
25 Phoebe Elers and Mohan J. Dutta, “Theorizing COVID-19 Communications from a Culture-Centered Lens: Communication Infrastructures for Challenging Disinformation,” Communication Monographs. (forthcoming).
26 Bei Ju et al., “Struggling in Im/Mobility: Lived Experience of Macao’s Mainland Chinese Migrant Laborers via WeChat Moments during COVID-19.”
27 For example, see: Mohan J. Dutta, “Singapore’s Extreme Neoliberalism and the COVID Outbreak: Culturally Centering Voices of Low-Wage Migrant Workers,” American Behavioral Scientist 65, no. 10 (2021): 1302–22; Eliza Govender, “Tailoring COVID-19 Communication for Local South African Contexts: Challenges, Contradictions, and Consequences of a Dominant Public Health Response,” in Communicating COVID-19: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, eds. Monique Lewis, Eliza Govender, and Kate Holland (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), 99–117.
28 Mohan J. Dutta, “Communication Inequality, Structural Inequality, and COVID-19,” in Communicating COVID-19: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, eds. Monique Lewis, Eliza Govender, and Kate Holland (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), 85–98.
29 Ministry of Education. “Tackling the Digital Divide During COVID-19,” June 1, 2021, https://www.digital.govt.nz/showcase/tackling-the-digital-divide-during-covid-19/
30 Dutta, Communication Inequality, Structural Inequality, and COVID-19.
31 Dutta, Communicating Health.
32 See: Dutta, “Culture-Centered Approach in Addressing Health Disparities,” 239–59.
33 Shaunak Sastry et al., “A Meta-theoretical Systematic Review of the Culture-Centered Approach to Health Communication: Toward a Refined, “Nested” Model,” Communication Theory 31, no. 3 (2021): 415.
34 Mohan J. Dutta et al., “Critical Health Communication Method as Embodied Practice of Resistance: Culturally Centering Structural Transformation Through Struggle for Voice,” Frontiers in Communication (2019): 67.
35 See: New Zealand Government. “Digital Inclusion and Wellbeing in New Zealand,” digital.govt.nz, February 8, 2022, https://www.digital.govt.nz/dmsdocument/161~digital-inclusion-and-wellbeing-in-new-zealand/html
36 See: Phoebe Elers et al., “Applying the Culture-Centered Approach to Visual Storytelling Methods,” Review of Communication 21, no. 1 (2021): 33–43.
37 Dutta, “Culture-Centered Approach in Addressing Health Disparities,” 239–59.
38 Mohan Dutta and Phoebe Elers, “Media Narratives of Kindness − A Critique,” Media International Australia 177, no. 1 (2020): 108–12.
39 Social Policy & Parliamentary Unit. “COVID-19 Social Impact Dashboard,” The Salvation Army, April 24, 2020, https://www.salvationarmy.org.nz/sites/default/files/uploads/2020/March/sppu_covid-19_update2.pdf
40 New Zealand Government. “History of the COVID-19 Alert System,” June 29, 2022, https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-system/history-of-the-covid-19-alert-system/
41 Ibid.
42 Elers et al., “Negotiating Health Amidst COVID-19,” 109–15.
43 For example: Jörg Finsterwalder et al., “Creating Hospitable Service Systems for Refugees During a Pandemic: Leveraging Resources for Service Inclusion,” Journal of Service Theory and Practice 31, no. 2 (2020): 247–63.
44 Rachel Simon-Kumar, “Inclusionary Policy and Marginalised Groups in Aoteaora/New Zealand Process, Impacts and Politics,” Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online 13, no. 2 (2018): 246–60.
45 Chris Mahony et al., “Aspirational Yet Precarious: Compliance of New Zealand Refugee Settlement Policy with International Human Rights Obligations,” International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 3, no. 1 (2017): 5–23.
46 Immigration New Zealand. “Refugee and Protection Unit Statistics Pack,” New Zealand Government, June 30, 2022, https://www.immigration.govt.nz/documents/statistics/statistics-refugee-and-protection.pdf
47 Kathy Charmaz, “Grounded Theory: Objectivist and Constructivist Methods,” in Handbook of Qualitative Research, eds. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (California: Sage, 2000), 509–36.
48 Pita King et al., “When the Marae Moves into the City: Being Māori in Urban Palmerston North,” City & Community 17, no. 4 (2018): 1189–208.
49 Note, younger members did attend primary school in Pakistan before migrating. Also, italics are used for the quotes that were translated as per the methods.
50 For further information about the communication inequality concept, see: Dutta, “Culture-Centered Approach in Addressing Health Disparities,” 239–59.
51 Elers et al., “Culturally Centring Digital Inclusion,” 311–27.
52 Abid
53 For example, see: Åsa Engström et al., “The Meaning of Critical Illness for People Suffering From COVID-19: When a Frightening Unreality Becomes Reality,” 135–44; Christian Bröer et al., “From Danger to Uncertainty: Changing Health Care Practices, Everyday Experiences, and Temporalities in Dealing With COVID-19 Policies in the Netherlands,” 1751–63.
54 Amber Pahayahay and Najmeh Khalili-Mahani, “What Media Helps, What Media Hurts: A Mixed Methods Survey Study of Coping With COVID-19 Using the Media Repertoire Framework and the Appraisal Theory of Stress,” e20186; Wendy E. Ellis et al. “Physically Isolated But Socially Connected: Psychological Adjustment and Stress Among Adolescents During the Initial COVID-19 Crisis,” 177–87; Bei Ju et al. “Struggling in Im/Mobility: Lived Experience of Macao’s Mainland Chinese Migrant Laborers via WeChat Moments during COVID-19.”
55 Todd L. Sandel and Dorji Wangchuk. “‘Thank You for Your Blessing’: Constructed Mobile Chronotopes in a Buddhist Online Community in Bhutan.” Language & Communication 75 (2020): 36–50.
56 See: John Lai and Nicole O. Widmar, “Revisiting the Digital Divide in the COVID-19 Era,” 458.
57 Bei Ju et al. “Struggling in Im/Mobility: Lived Experience of Macao’s Mainland Chinese Migrant Laborers via WeChat Moments during COVID-19.”
58 For further information about the communication inequality concept see: Dutta, “Culture-Centered Approach in Addressing Health Disparities,” 239–59.
59 Minh Hao Nguyen et al., “Changes in Digital Communication During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic: Implications for Digital Inequality and Future Research,” 1–6.
60 Phoebe Elers and Mohan J. Dutta, “Theorizing COVID-19 Communications from a Culture-Centered Lens: Communication Infrastructures for Challenging Disinformation,” Communication Monographs. (forthcoming).
61 See: Kevin Grumbach, Timothy Judson, Manisha Desai, Vivek Jain, Christina Lindan, Sarah B. Doernberg, and Marisa Holubar. “Association of race/ethnicity with likeliness of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among health workers and the general population in the San Francisco Bay Area.” JAMA internal medicine 181, no. 7 (2021): 1008–11; Micah Tan, Paulin Tay Straughan, and Grace Cheong. “Information trust and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy amongst middle-aged and older adults in Singapore: A latent class analysis Approach.” Social Science & Medicine 296 (2022): 114767.
62 Mohan J. Dutta, “Communication Inequality, Structural Inequality, and COVID-19,” 85–98.