#EsteVirusloParamosUnidos: War-like political communication on Twitter. Creating homogeneous communities in the Covid-19 crisis

Anna Tous-Rovirosa,Daria Dergacheva

doi:10.5209/esmp.75758

Abstract

This article analyses the political communication on Twitter of the Government of Spain at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The #estevirusloparamosunidos campaign on Twitter is monitored during the dates with the worst results in terms of fatalities (March 31th- April, 4th, 2020). The sample included in total 398 523 tweets in four data sets. Through the Social Network Analysis, the main actors and the main interactions between users are identified. The research shows a high coincidence between the typology of the Press Conference Spokespersons and the main actors on the analyzed hashtag, prioritizing the Spanish Administration and the Armed Forces. There was also a high relationship of the main opinion leaders with their “natural spectrum”. We conclude that in this hashtag there was a “war-like” atmosphere. Via the computer-based text analysis we identify that the word ‘government’ was mentioned more than medical words and that there are present some military-like terms.

Highlights

In the period analyzed (March 31st-April 4th), deaths from coronavirus totaled 5,216 in just five days, with April 2nd being the worst day on record with 950 deaths according to RTVE (2020) and based on the Spain’s Ministry of Health database
Using SNA techniques, the main objective of this research is to analyze and visualize which network is woven inside the hashtag #estevirusloparamosunidos circulating on Twitter around the Covid-19 pandemic
This study examined the Twitter hashtag #estevirusloparamosunidos during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in Spain

Summary

Introduction

In the period analyzed (March 31st-April 4th), deaths from coronavirus totaled 5,216 in just five days, with April 2nd being the worst day on record with 950 deaths according to RTVE (2020) and based on the Spain’s Ministry of Health database. It has been one of the worst periods on record in Spain. According to the INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadística/ National Statistics Institute), there were 23,778 deaths caused by Covid during March 2020, with an additional 8,743 deaths with causes unidentified but suspected of being caused by Covid for the same period. There were a further 38,325 deaths caused by Covid in April 2020, again with 17.134 not identified but suspected of being caused by Covid for the same period (INE)

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