Redes Sociales Geolocalizadas Y Covid-19: Analisis De La Actividad Espaciotemporal De Los Usuarios De Twitter De Espana Durante La Pandemia

ABSTRACT

This work seeks to show Twitter as an alternative data source for the study of the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus in Spain. For this work, an analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution of the sample of users obtained in three different periods of the year 2020 is proposed, and then the obtained results are compared with the same periods of the year prior to the pandemic. A space-time analysis of the use of terms associated with the disease is also elaborated, and heat maps are made to observe the impact caused in the activity of two cities of relevant tourist weight. The obtained results indicate a sharp decrease in the number of users who publish geolocated tweets in the country throughout 2020, especially in the second half of the year and in the interior provinces of the peninsula. A less pronounced decrease in the number of users is also observed in coastal areas and provinces oriented to the tourism sector.