A Network, Content, and Sentiment Analysis of Tweets about the Greek Ministries

Abstract

Twitter has been widely acknowledged as a crucial platform for political communication and deliberation. In this sense, research on information extraction from Twitter is growing rapidly but usually uses sentiment analysis in various aspects. The purpose of this study is to examine the networks of Twitter interactions among formal and informal political actors, as well as to identify the key topics of discussion and the sentiments conveyed by users about the 19 Greek ministries, by proposing a combination of three methods that includes not only sentiment, but also social network and content analysis. The research findings showed that not all ministries receive equal attention, resulting in interesting differences among them. Such a study can provide insights into the public’s views, reactions, and concerns, and may help governments and/or ministries better understand and align their policies and communication with them. In addition, the proposed framework offers a multifaceted exploration of Twitter interactions, discussions, and sentiments that may be applied virtually in every large-scale, public or private organization.