World leaders’ usage of Twitter in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: a content analysis

Journal of Public Health - Tập 42 Số 3 - Trang 510-516 - 2020
Sohaib R. Rufai1,2, Catey Bunce3
1Clinical and Academic Department of Ophthalmology, Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London WC1N 3JH, UK
2The University of Leicester Ulverscroft Eye Unit, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Robert Kilpatrick Clinical Sciences Building, PO Box 65, Leicester LE2 7LX, UK
3Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, School of Population Health and Environmental Sciences, King's College London, 4th Floor, Addison House, Guy's Campus, London SE1 1UL, UK

Tóm tắt

ABSTRACT Background

It is crucial that world leaders mount effective public health measures in response to COVID-19. Twitter may represent a powerful tool to help achieve this. Here, we explore the role of Twitter as used by Group of Seven (G7) world leaders in response to COVID-19.

Methods

This was a qualitative study with content analysis. Inclusion criteria were as follows: viral tweets from G7 world leaders, attracting a minimum of 500 ‘likes’; keywords ‘COVID-19’ or ‘coronavirus’; search dates 17 November 2019 to 17 March 2020. We performed content analysis to categorize tweets into appropriate themes and analyzed associated Twitter data.

Results

Eight out of nine (88.9%) G7 world leaders had verified and active Twitter accounts, with a total following of 85.7 million users. Out of a total 203 viral tweets, 166 (82.8%) were classified as ‘Informative’, of which 48 (28.6%) had weblinks to government-based sources, while 19 (9.4%) were ‘Morale-boosting’ and 14 (6.9%) were ‘Political’. Numbers of followers and viral tweets were not strictly related.

Conclusions

Twitter may represent a powerful tool for world leaders to rapidly communicate public health information with citizens. We would urge general caution when using Twitter for health information, with a preference for tweets containing official government-based information sources.

Từ khóa


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