1/ How early and how often have country leaders tweeted about #Coronavirus?
I downloaded the tweets of 9 Presidents and PMs, hand-coded them as Virus or Non-Virus, and plotted daily tweets from January 1 to March 16.
PDF: bit.ly/ks2020pdf
Data: bit.ly/ks2020virus
I downloaded the tweets of 9 Presidents and PMs, hand-coded them as Virus or Non-Virus, and plotted daily tweets from January 1 to March 16.
PDF: bit.ly/ks2020pdf
Data: bit.ly/ks2020virus
2/ Key Insights 1
- 🇰🇷@moonriver365, 🇯🇵@AbeShinzo & 🇸🇬@leehsienloong tweet less in general but have used 50%+ of all tweets since January 1 for virus-related information
- #Singapore & #SouthKorea leaders have been tweeting steady flows of prep & risk info since late January
- 🇰🇷@moonriver365, 🇯🇵@AbeShinzo & 🇸🇬@leehsienloong tweet less in general but have used 50%+ of all tweets since January 1 for virus-related information
- #Singapore & #SouthKorea leaders have been tweeting steady flows of prep & risk info since late January
3/ Key Insights 2
- 🇫🇷 @EmmanuelMacron, 🇬🇧@BorisJohnson & 🇺🇸@realDonaldTrump were slowest to ramp up virus-related tweets
- 🇫🇷 Macron’s first tweet about the virus (Feb 27 - see below) was almost one month later than that of all other leaders except 🇬🇧Johnson (Feb 18)
- 🇫🇷 @EmmanuelMacron, 🇬🇧@BorisJohnson & 🇺🇸@realDonaldTrump were slowest to ramp up virus-related tweets
- 🇫🇷 Macron’s first tweet about the virus (Feb 27 - see below) was almost one month later than that of all other leaders except 🇬🇧Johnson (Feb 18)
4/ Key Insights 3
- By my count, 🇺🇸@realDonaldTrump tweeted 36 times about the virus between Jan1 & Feb29 but the majority of these break down as:
- political attack/defence (11 )
- don't worry/low risk (9)
- self-congratulations (8)
- other/useful info (8)
Some examples:
- By my count, 🇺🇸@realDonaldTrump tweeted 36 times about the virus between Jan1 & Feb29 but the majority of these break down as:
- political attack/defence (11 )
- don't worry/low risk (9)
- self-congratulations (8)
- other/useful info (8)
Some examples:
5/ Key Insights 4
The earliest virus tweets by #Australia, #USA & #Canada leaders focused mainly on repatriations of affected citizens
Among Western nations in the sample 🇨🇦@JustinTrudeau & 🇦🇺@ScottMorrisonMP seem to have provided the most regular updates for the longest time
The earliest virus tweets by #Australia, #USA & #Canada leaders focused mainly on repatriations of affected citizens
Among Western nations in the sample 🇨🇦@JustinTrudeau & 🇦🇺@ScottMorrisonMP seem to have provided the most regular updates for the longest time
6/ Key Insight 5
Currently, all national leaders are flooding their feeds with important #Coronavirus updates. However, only select leaders capitalized on early opportunities to reduce spread and normalize new behaviours by tweeting info & instructions before the current panic.
Currently, all national leaders are flooding their feeds with important #Coronavirus updates. However, only select leaders capitalized on early opportunities to reduce spread and normalize new behaviours by tweeting info & instructions before the current panic.
7/ I think the timing, content, proportion & frequency of tweets by leaders matter in an outbreak, but I'd love to hear from you
I've made my data and coding available at the link below
What do you see in the data?
What did I misread or misinterpret?
bit.ly/ks2020virus
I've made my data and coding available at the link below
What do you see in the data?
What did I misread or misinterpret?
bit.ly/ks2020virus
8/ The data is view only and was created in Google Sheets.
If you download it as xlsx, the graphs won't render properly. If you'd like the full data with properly displayed graphs, DM me with your gmail address and I will share the file so that you can open it directly in sheets
If you download it as xlsx, the graphs won't render properly. If you'd like the full data with properly displayed graphs, DM me with your gmail address and I will share the file so that you can open it directly in sheets
