Competing frames on social media: analysis of English and Farsi tweets on Iran plane crash

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study conducted content analysis and word co-occurrence network analysis of tweets about the Ukraine plane crash in Iran in 2020 to analyse differences between English tweets and Farsi tweets in framing and discussing the major international event. Results from our computational analysis and human coding of the tweets show important differences and similarities between English tweets and Farsi tweets in terms of prominent frames and frequently co-occurring word pairs, and topic areas discussed. People offered different diagnostic and prognostic perspectives on the crash. In both English and Farsi tweets, ‘UkrainePlaneCrash’ was frequently paired with ‘Iran’ and ‘Ukraine’. The most prominent frame in both English and Farsi tweets was diagnostic frame. In terms of collection action frame, there were statistically significant differences between English and Farsi tweets. While the second most prominent frame in Farsi tweets was motivational frame, prognostic frame was the second most prominent frame in English tweets.