An Analysis of the COVID-19 Agenda Using Big Data from Social Media: A Comparative Study across Countries with R Programming

Abstract

Social media platforms are becoming increasingly important as sources of public discourse and real-time data analysis, as the COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted. Using the hashtag #COVID19, this study examines COVID-19-related tweets from seven nations (the US, Germany, South Korea, Iraq, Spain, Italy, and Turkey) in order to find trends in engagement and correlations. Similarities between public attitude and government communications are examined by statistical techniques such as content analysis, frequency analysis, and cross-delay correlation, as well as R programming. The findings show that tweet patterns from different countries are highly correlated, and that the Iraqi government's tweets with a typical theme were more popular than those with a COVID-19 theme. This study provides information on cross-border communication tactics in times of crisis and illustrates the potential of big data analytics for comprehending global phenomena.