Attention to the Covid‐19 Pandemic on Twitter

Partisan Differences Among U.S. State Legislators

Bibliographic Data

ID7329628
AuthorsTaegyoon Kim (0000-0003-1230-774X, Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author), Nitheesha Nakka (0000-0001-9391-3631, Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author), Ishita Gopal (Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author), Bruce A Desmarais (Pennsylvania State University), Bruce Desmarais (0000-0002-3031-8883, Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author), Abigail Mancinelli (0000-0001-6839-9298, University of Notre Dame, corresponding author), Jeffrey J Harden (0000-0001-5337-7918, University of Notre Dame, corresponding author), Hyein Ko (0000-0002-9497-9656, University of Iowa, corresponding author), Frederick J Boehmke (0000-0003-3309-0885, University of Iowa, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume47
Issue4
Pages1023-1041
Publication date2021-12-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLegislative Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0362-9805 • E-ISSN: 1939-9162
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lsq.12367
OpenAlexW4200434015
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited34

Subnational governments in the United States have taken the lead on many aspects of the response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. Variation in government activity across states offers the opportunity to analyze responses in comparable settings. We study a common and informative activity among state officials—state legislators’ attention to the pandemic on Twitter. We find that legislators’ attention to the pandemic strongly correlates with the number of cases in the legislator’s state, the national count of new deaths, and the number of pandemic‐related public policies passed within the legislator’s state. Furthermore, we find that the degree of responsiveness to pandemic indicators differs significantly across political parties, with Republicans exhibiting weaker responses, on average. Lastly, we find significant differences in the content of tweets about the pandemic by Democratic and Republican legislators, with Democrats focused on health indicators and impacts, and Republicans focused on business impacts and opening the economy

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Government (linguistics · Legislator · Pandemic · Political economy · Political science · Politics · State (computer science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Medicine · Public Administration · Social Media and Politics

Tools

Open DOI