Is There a Relationship Between New Media and the Number of Recorded Covid-19 Cases in Ghana? No! Evidence from a Content Analysis of the Twitter Posts of Key Ghanaian State Actors in the First Year of the Pandemic

Abstract

The covid 19 pandemic led to a public health crises which aside leading to the death of more than four hundred and fifty thousand people (WHO, 2020a), has also disrupted the way people live, by forcing us to make changes to how we work, school and live our social lives. Governments worldwide devised many strategies to help slow down the spread of the virus and reduce its impact on the economy and livelihoods of people. Eventhough social media platforms played a key role in information dissemination and awareness creation in relation to the novel Corona Virus, it is unknown if the activity of key government social media accounts have any relationship with the number of recorded cases. The researchers used a quantitative content analysis strategy to analyse the posts of 5 key Ghanaian government accounts on Twitter between 11 th March 2020 and 11 th March 2021, in relation to certain Covid 19 keywords. The researchers found that, no correlation exists between the Twitter posts of key government accounts and number of recorded Covid-19 cases in Ghana. The study also shows that, the lowest number of Covid 19 related tweets were posted in December 2020, the month of the Ghanaian elections, whereas, the highest number of Covid 19 related tweets were posted in March 2020, the month in which the first case was detected in Ghana. The researchers conclude that eventhough social media can conttribute to crises and emergency communications, social media alone as a crises communication strategy may not be enough and must be paired with other traditional forms of communication such as radio. Keywords: Social Media, Crises Communications, Twitter, Covid 19, Pandemic Communications DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/104-01 Publication date: January 31 st 2023