ArticleJMIR public health and surveillance2021
The Spread of COVID-19 Crisis Communication by German Public Authorities and Experts on Twitter: Quantitative Content Analysis.
Article in JMIR public health and surveillance, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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12 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Misinformation Through the Lens of Dutch News Media and Public Health Authorities: Content Analysis of Topics and Narratives Present in Pandemic-Related Misinformation During COVID-19.JMIR infodemiology · 2026Article
- Public opinion dissemination simulation based on large language model multi-agent systems.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Persuasive Effects of Crisis Communication during Public Health Emergency Outbreaks in China.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Political Leaders' Communication Strategies during COVID-19 in Highly Infected Countries: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Analysis of Pharmaceutical Companies' Social Media Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on the Public.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Deciphering Influence on Social Media: A Comparative Analysis of Influential Account Detection Metrics in the Context of Tobacco Promotion.Social media + society · 2024Article
- Article
- The role of social media in public health crises caused by infectious disease: a scoping review.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- [Sentiments in the COVID-19 crisis communication of German authorities and independent experts on Twitter : A sentiment analysis for the first year of the pandemic].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2023Article
- A Personalized Avatar-Based Web Application to Help People Understand How Social Distancing Can Reduce the Spread of COVID-19: Cross-sectional, Observational, Pre-Post Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- User-Chatbot Conversations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Study Based on Topic Modeling and Sentiment Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Crisis communication strategies for health officials.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic led to the necessity of immediate crisis communication by public health authorities. In Germany, as in many other countries, people choose social media, including Twitter, to obtain real-time information and understanding of the pandemic and its consequences. Next to authorities, experts such as virologists and science communicators were very prominent at the beginning of German Twitter COVID-19 crisis communication.
objectiveThe aim of this study was to detect similarities and differences between public authorities and individual experts in COVID-19 crisis communication on Twitter during the first year of the pandemic.
methodsDescriptive analysis and quantitative content analysis were carried out on 8251 original tweets posted from January 1, 2020, to January 15, 2021. COVID-19-related tweets of 21 authorities and 18 experts were categorized into structural, content, and style components. Negative binomial regressions were performed to evaluate tweet spread measured by the retweet and like counts of COVID-19-related tweets.
resultsDescriptive statistics revealed that authorities and experts increasingly tweeted about COVID-19 over the period under study. Two experts and one authority were responsible for 70.26% (544,418/774,865) of all retweets, thus representing COVID-19 influencers. Altogether, COVID-19 tweets by experts reached a 7-fold higher rate of retweeting (t
conclusionsTwitter data are a powerful information source and suitable for crisis communication in Germany. COVID-19 tweet activity mirrors the development of COVID-19 cases in Germany. Twitter users retweet and like communications regarding COVID-19 by experts more than those delivered by authorities. Tweets have higher coverage for both authorities and experts when they are plain and for authorities when they directly address people. For authorities, it appears that it was difficult to win recognition during COVID-19. For all stakeholders studied, the association between number of followers and number of retweets was highly significantly positive (authorities Z=28.74, P<.001; experts Z=25.99, P<.001). Updated standards might be required for successful crisis communication by authorities.
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