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Moral contentions in the COVID-19 discourses: a qualitative content analysis of Moral Key Terms in Swiss public discourses

Fritschi F., Spitale G., Germani F., Biller-Andorno N., Merten S. (2026) Critical Public Health 36(1) 10.1080/09581596.2026.2658913

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Reading newspapers, social media and responses to our public-engagement platform PubliCo, we studied how moral words like freedom and justice were used to contest Switzerland’s COVID-19 measures. Four disputes emerged: who legitimately decides, safety versus freedom, keeping dialogue open, and social justice, with the same words carrying different groups’ perspectives and interests.

Abstract

Moral Key Terms (MKTs) have been used in public discourses to challenge or support efforts to manage COVID-19. We developed four themes that illustrate this through a theory-driven qualitative content analysis of a dataset consisting of newspaper articles, social media posts, and responses from the online platform PubliCo. MKTs were used to contend how democratic decisions are legitimately formed, how to balance safety and freedom, how to foster dialogue and how to achieve social justice during a pandemic. The different uses of moral terms reflect different life worlds, perspectives, and interests of social groups.

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Fritschi, F., Spitale, G., Germani, F., Biller-Andorno, N., & Merten, S. (2026). Moral contentions in the COVID-19 discourses: a qualitative content analysis of Moral Key Terms in Swiss public discourses. Critical Public Health, 36(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2026.2658913
@article{fritschi2026moral,
  author  = {Fritschi, F. and Spitale, G. and Germani, F. and Biller-Andorno, N. and Merten, S.},
  title   = {{Moral contentions in the COVID-19 discourses: a qualitative content analysis of Moral Key Terms in Swiss public discourses}},
  journal = {Critical Public Health},
  year    = {2026},
  volume  = {36},
  number  = {1},
  doi     = {10.1080/09581596.2026.2658913}
}

Published in

Critical Public Health

Year

2026

DOI

10.1080/09581596.2026.2658913

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