Public service sentiment in Australian digital communities on Reddit and Whirlpool during the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper explores the role of digitally networked local communities on the platforms Reddit and Whirlpool in helping citizens navigate and understand Australian public services during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study incorporates an analysis of six location-based Australian subreddits and nine discussion forums on the platform Whirlpool. An inductive content analysis on a dataset of 14,000 posts and comments collected across February to April of 2020 was conducted resulting in a dataset of 2012 posts that mentioned public services. Following this, a bipartite network analysis combined with a sentiment analysis was employed. The findings highlight how localised online spaces work as peer-to-peer information aggregates that curate and make visible citizen understandings of Australian public services. This research contributes an understanding of how online communities intersect with urban and regional localities and the implications of these spaces for civic engagement and access to support during times of crisis.