Abstract
Abstract
The current study aimed to examine how the government departments of health in Saudi Arabia and Australia provided
health advice to the public through Twitter during the COVID-19 crisis. To this end, 100 Saudi and 100 Australian tweets were
analysed by using
Martínez-Flor’s (2003)
advice linguistic realization strategies
typology and an adapted version of
Trosborg’s (1995)
coding scheme for internal
modifiers. The external modifiers that emerged in the data were also examined. The results showed a general tendency to use direct
advice-giving strategies among Saudis and Australians. Statistical comparisons showed that Saudis used significantly more direct
advice-giving strategies and external modifiers than Australians while Australians employed significantly more conventionally
indirect strategies and internal modifiers than Saudis.