Twitter Followers of Canadian Political and Health Authorities during the COVID-19 Pandemic: What Are Their Activity and Interests?

IF 1.2 2区社会学 Q3 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Canadian Journal of Political Science-Revue Canadienne De Science Politique Pub Date : 2021-01-14 DOI:10.1017/S0008423921000020

M. Haman

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Abstract I examined the use of Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic to find out how many Twitter users started to follow relevant Canadian political and health authorities, and I investigated their activity and interests. To this end, I analyzed 398,037 Twitter accounts. The results reveal that the Twitter accounts of relevant authorities gained a significant number of new Twitter followers during the pandemic. The Twitter users who joined during the pandemic were rather passive; they tweeted and liked fewer tweets than Twitter users who registered in the months prior to the pandemic. They also chose to follow Twitter accounts predominantly related to news, politics and governmental agencies. These findings suggest that during the pandemic, numerous information-seeking citizens joined Twitter for the purpose of obtaining information about public health matters, which in turn suggests that authorities should incorporate Twitter into their information dissemination tools, especially during emergencies, to meet the public demand for information.

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2019冠状病毒病大流行期间加拿大政治和卫生当局的推特粉丝:他们的活动和兴趣是什么?

我研究了在COVID-19大流行期间Twitter的使用情况，以了解有多少Twitter用户开始关注相关的加拿大政治和卫生当局，并调查了他们的活动和兴趣。为此，我分析了398037个Twitter账户。结果显示，在大流行期间，有关当局的Twitter账户获得了大量新的Twitter关注者。大流行期间加入Twitter的用户相当被动;与大流行前几个月注册的推特用户相比，他们发推文和点赞的次数更少。他们还选择关注主要与新闻、政治和政府机构相关的推特账户。这些调查结果表明，在大流行期间，许多寻求信息的公民加入Twitter，目的是获取有关公共卫生问题的信息，这反过来又表明，当局应将Twitter纳入其信息传播工具，特别是在紧急情况下，以满足公众对信息的需求。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Canadian Journal of Political Science-Revue Canadienne De Science Politique POLITICAL SCIENCE-

CiteScore

6.30

自引率

5.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： This journal provides original research articles, notes, commentaries, review articles, and book reviews in all areas of political science, including but not limited to: the history of political thought; contemporary political theory; international relations and foreign policy; governmental institutions and processes; political behaviour; public administration and public policy; and women and politics. In addition, the Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique is the primary forum for innovative research on all facets of Canadian politics and government as well as the principal outlet for Canadian political science scholarship. Submissions are accepted in English and in French.