ABSTRACT
This article analyzes the political communication on Twitter of the Government of Spain at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The #EsteVirusloParamosUnidos campaign on Twitter is monitored during the dates, with the worst results in terms of fatalities (March 31st– April 4th, 2020). In total, the sample included 398,523 tweets in four data sets. Through Social Network Analysis, the main actors and the main interactions between users were identified. The research shows a high coincidence between the typology of the press conference spokespersons and the main actors on the analyzed hashtag, prioritizing the Spanish administration and the armed forces. There was also a high relationship of the main opinion leaders with their “natural spectrum.” We conclude that in this hashtag, there was a “war-like” atmosphere. Via the computer-based text analysis, we identify that the word ‘government’ was mentioned more than medical words, and some military-like terms were present. © 2021 Universidad Complutense de Madrid. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Covid-19 is highly relevant in 2020;among other things, it is attracting new global socio-communicative and linguistic research. Scholars are addressing the linguistic response to the social and psychological situation in different countries in the era of coronavirus. Thus, the Editorial Board has created a forum for specialists to communicate (in writing), one which makes it possible to provide information about their sources on Covid-19 and illustrate theoretical materials. The participants chose to analyse different aspects of language during the pandemic;medical terminology and its relevant vocabulary were the same for all countries. The conversation goes beyond the scope of linguistics, as it is important for the researchers to characterise measures taken by governments to combat Covid-19 and the public's reaction to them as reflected through language. Additionally, the authors focus on spontaneous linguistic responses to the pandemic in the form of language games, metaphors, and references to historical memory of combatting disasters. The pandemic has also caused long-standing forms of speech communication to change. Researchers from different European countries have took part: Arto Mustajoki (University of Helsinki, Finland;National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia), Naclezjda Zorikhina Nilsson (Stockholm University, Sweden), Rafael Guzmon Tirado (University of Granada, Spain), Anna Tous-Ravirosa and Darla Dergacheva (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain). The conversation was moderated by Irina Vepreva and Tatiana Itskovich (Ural Federal University Yekaterinburg, Russia).