#Covid-19: A hashtag for examining reactions towards Europe in times of crisis. An analysis of tweets in Italian, Spanish, and French

Abstract

Hashtag research has established itself as a relevant research field, with various studies having analysed this polysemic collector in crisis and media events. Hashtags are used in social media, most specifically on Twitter. Further, between 2020 and 2021, hashtag studies linked to the COVID-19 pandemic have emerged. Accordingly, this study aimed to analyse the content of tweets during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 4–11, 2020) that included the hashtag #Covid-19 in three different languages: Italian, Spanish, and French. For these analyses, we used emotional text mining. The goal of this study was to reconstruct the representation of the pandemic, of containment measures, and of Europe in tweets. We discussed the prevailing attitude towards Europe in times of crisis.

From #iononriapro to #ioapro: analysing hashtag activism in the Italian restaurant Twittersphere during the 2020 lockdown

“…, 2019) and to analyse the hashtag #coronavirus in Italy (Boccia Artieri et al. , 2021a, b) and #Covid-19 in Europe (La Rocca and Greco, 2022). It falls within the merged method (Gobo et al.…”

“…Greco, 2019) and public health (e.g. Greco et al, 2019) and to analyse the hashtag #coronavirus in Italy (Boccia Artieri et al, 2021a, b) and #Covid-19 in Europe (La Rocca and Greco, 2022). It falls within the merged method (Gobo et al, 2021), that is a method born from the combination of several techniques and aims to bring out the knowledge contained in the hashtags and transform it from tacit to explicit (Gobo et al, 2021).…”

Research using hashtags: A meta-synthesis

“…In the first case, hashtags linked to official events are used to follow the expression of shared fandom in the context of a major, internationally televised annual media event, as in the case studied by Highfield et al (2013) for Eurovision Song Contest, where researchers followed and analyzed the evolution of meanings for hashtags: #eurovision, #esc, and #sbseurovision. The second case could be represented by the studies on Queensland floods in 2010-2011 and Christchurch earthquakes (e.g., Burgess, 2012, 2014; and now for the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., Boccia Artieri et al, 2021a,b;Kurten and Beullens, 2021;La Rocca and Greco, 2022). In this case, there is a prevailing idea that when crises or disastrous events emerge, hashtags are born with them, as a need felt by social media users to share information, follow news, and comment on them.…”

social landscape after the pandemic crisis in Southern European societies

“…The request to bring the state "back in" to assume public responsibility for the new social risks is now being debated in the political arena. Also, the study included in this volume on the representation of the COVID-19 pandemic in social media reveals widespread awareness of the economic costs among southern European communities, but also high expectations of public institutions, national governments, and European organizations (La Rocca & Greco, 2022). At the level of European politics, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that southern European countries can act as a group to reverse the EU approach to fiscal control; it was their efforts, and the early mobilization of Italy and Spain, that paved the way for approval of the NEXT Generation EU (NGEU) investment package.…”