Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking
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Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw · Feb 2021
Whose Tweets on COVID-19 Gain the Most Attention: Celebrities, Political, or Scientific Authorities?
Twitter has considerable capacity for health education and proves to be an efficient and accessible communication tool in the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. Although many stakeholders saturate Twitter with COVID-19-related information, it remains unknown who disseminates information most efficaciously. COVID-19-related tweets were obtained from Twitter accounts of health agencies, governmental authorities, universities, scientific journals, medical associations, and celebrities. ⋯ The posts with positive sentiment gained more likes and relative likes than nonpositive. During the pandemic, the tweets of celebrities and politicians related to COVID-19 outperform those coming from health and scientific institutions. Active engagement of Twitter influencers may help key messages go viral.