World leaders' usage of Twitter in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: a content analysis

It is crucial that world leaders mount effective public health measures in response to COVID-19. Twitter may represent a powerful tool to help achieve this. Here, we explore the role of Twitter as used by Group of Seven (G7) world leaders in response to COVID-19. This was a qualitative study with co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public health (Oxford, England) Vol. 42; no. 3; p. 510
Main Authors: Rufai, Sohaib R, Bunce, Catey
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England 18.08.2020
Subjects:
Adult
Betacoronavirus
Communication
Coronavirus Infections - diagnosis
Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections - therapy
COVID-19
Female
Global Health - standards
Humans
Information Dissemination - methods
Male
Middle Aged
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral - diagnosis
Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology
Pneumonia, Viral - therapy
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Public Health - standards
Qualitative Research
SARS-CoV-2
Social Media
COVID-19
Twitter
communicable diseases
social media
World leaders
public health
ISSN:1741-3850, 1741-3850
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Summary:It is crucial that world leaders mount effective public health measures in response to COVID-19. Twitter may represent a powerful tool to help achieve this. Here, we explore the role of Twitter as used by Group of Seven (G7) world leaders in response to COVID-19. This was a qualitative study with content analysis. Inclusion criteria were as follows: viral tweets from G7 world leaders, attracting a minimum of 500 'likes'; keywords 'COVID-19' or 'coronavirus'; search dates 17 November 2019 to 17 March 2020. We performed content analysis to categorize tweets into appropriate themes and analyzed associated Twitter data. Eight out of nine (88.9%) G7 world leaders had verified and active Twitter accounts, with a total following of 85.7 million users. Out of a total 203 viral tweets, 166 (82.8%) were classified as 'Informative', of which 48 (28.6%) had weblinks to government-based sources, while 19 (9.4%) were 'Morale-boosting' and 14 (6.9%) were 'Political'. Numbers of followers and viral tweets were not strictly related. Twitter may represent a powerful tool for world leaders to rapidly communicate public health information with citizens. We would urge general caution when using Twitter for health information, with a preference for tweets containing official government-based information sources.
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ISSN:1741-3850
1741-3850
DOI:10.1093/pubmed/fdaa049