Title: Republican networks vs. democratic networks for COVID-19

Authors: Seungil Yum

Addresses: The Department of Landscape and Urban Planning, Cheongju University, South Korea

Abstract: This study explores how US political parties have social networks for COVID-19 to cope with the pandemic by employing social network analysis for Twitter. This study finds that people have their social networks for COVID-19 with the Republican Party more than the Democratic Party. Second, the Republican Party mostly has their social networks with the Republican politicians, whereas the Democratic Party has them with various key players, such as Democratic politicians, Republican politicians, and news media. Third, they have their presidential candidate as the second key player in their networks. Fourth, both parties are the only key players that exert a significant impact on the largest group. Fifth, people in the Republican networks tend to criticise Donald Trump and the Republican Party, whereas those in the Democratic networks are more likely to support Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

Keywords: republican party; democratic party; COVID-19; SNA; social network analysis; Twitter.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2023.136270

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2023 Vol.15 No.4, pp.423 - 441

Received: 31 Mar 2022
Accepted: 13 Jul 2022
Published online: 25 Jan 2024 *

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