Novak Djokovic Vs Australia: How the Tennis Star has Caused Public Disruption
It is no secret that the hot topic of Novak Djokovic has caused controversy and a bit of humour with not only Australian tennis fans, but the global population.
Novak Djokovic started this year as the number one male tennis player, and, almost, its greatest champion. With hopes to defend his title, Djokovic was initially granted an exemption to play at the Australian Open without being vaccinated against COVID-19, as he had recently recovered from the virus.
However, with Djokovic not providing acceptable proof that he cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, immigration Minister Alex Hawke officially cancelled Djokovic’s Visa on January 14, 2022. With the tennis star losing his fight to stay in Australia he has now returned to his hometown of Serbia and is automatically banned from re-entering the country for three years.
Let’s look retrospectively at the key events in January 2022, as Djokovic tries to enter Australia.
January 5: Djokovic arrives at Melbourne airport from Spain via Dubai.
January 6: Djokovic’s visa is cancelled, and the case is adjourned until January 10.
January 10: Judge Anthony Kelly quashes the cancellation of Djokovic’s visa. Fans swarm outside Djokovic’s lawyers’ office, ending in one man’s arrest, and many being pepper-sprayed by police.
January 14: Immigration minister Alex Hawke officially cancels Djokovic’s visa.
January 16: Djokovic is deported from Australia and leaves Melbourne on a flight to Dubai.
Using Sprinklr a unified customer experience management platform we took these dates, applied filters related to Novak Djokovic, and produced a figure which presents, quite explicitly, the public interest in the topic. Social media posts across multiple platforms were grouped according to positive (4.57%), negative (28.05%) or neutral (67.38%) and drawn across January of 2022.
Negative and neutral mentions which spiked, align with the timeline of the key events occurring as Djokovic tried to enter Australia.
So how exactly are Australians feeling about Novak Djokovic?
As we analyse the top emotions around the public topic of Novak Djokovic it is evident that Australians have high levels of Anger, followed by approval. As Australian PM Scott Morrison mentioned, Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic, and they rightly expect the result of those sacrifices to be protected.
So, although Australians are irritated at Djokovic’s attempt to play in the Australian open, support has been revealed for the federal government’s decision to officially cancel the tennis stars visa.
Not only has the Djokovic saga caused a high level of conversation across the country, but the tennis star has been ruthlessly mocked online after his visa to enter the country was sensationally denied.
With Social media users relishing the opportunity to poke fun at Djokovic, the level of social engagement surrounding the topic is leveraged, ultimately allowing a higher level of sentiment to be measured around the topic.
This real-time sentiment analysis can be powerfully expanded to include images. With visual analysis tools, content can easily be explored for its sentiment as it pertains to a specific brand, mention or even individual.
This can be integrated, alongside the sentiment timelines and visual insights, seamlessly amongst an organisation’s digital strategy.
To learn more about how you can listen to online conversations for both public and private industries, contact us today!