There is scholarly debate on whether digital political participation influence decision-making or merely make citizens feel good. Using digital public sphere theory and play, this article explores political participation on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe. The study applies a qualitative content analysis on tweets as it answers questions: does perspective by media users in a health crisis exert political change and in what way does play on digital spheres induce participation for gratification purposes? The findings of the study reflect the use of conspiratorial satire, hyperbole, and propaganda in the COVID-19 pandemic as media users laugh at poor health infrastructure, corruption and authoritarianism. We argue that netizens’ political participation on social media is somehow overrated for it has not generated meaningful change in non-democratic context but gives the media user, a sense of gratification for scoffing at the ruling regime.

中文翻译：

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在非民主背景下的健康危机期间玩推特：满意还是异议？

关于数字政治参与是影响决策还是仅仅让公民感觉良好，学术界存在争论。本文利用数字公共领域理论和游戏，探讨了津巴布韦 COVID-19 大流行期间 Twitter 上的政治参与。该研究在回答问题时对推文进行了定性内容分析：健康危机中媒体用户的观点是否会带来政治变革，以及数字领域的游戏如何引发出于满足目的的参与？该研究的结果反映了在 COVID-19 大流行中阴谋讽刺、夸张和宣传的使用，媒体用户嘲笑卫生基础设施薄弱、腐败和独裁主义。我们认为，网民在社交媒体上的政治参与在某种程度上被高估了，因为它没有在非民主背景下产生有意义的变化，但却给了媒体用户一种嘲笑统治政权的满足感。