Social Media in the Army. An Analysis of the Operation Supporting the covid-19 Pandemic (Operation Balmis) in Spain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2024.231Keywords:
Army, Balmis, covid-19, sentiment analysis, polarityAbstract
The pandemic originated by covid-19 led to the execution of military operations in support of civil efforts. Specifically, in Spain, Operation Balmis was carried out. This study presents research based on social network analytics that monitored the institutional Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts of the Spanish Army from 01/01/2020 to 28/09/2020, with the aim of analyzing profile behavior and the digital community's reaction. A sentiment analysis was conducted on a total corpus of 2,151 posts and 136,171 comments. Mean comparison tests were applied between phases - pre-Balmis, Balmis, and post-Balmis - to study the existence of differences. The results showed significant changes between phases regarding polarity, emotions, and clusters, as well as a significant increase in activity on Twitter and Facebook. Discussion revolves around the population's preferences for posts centered on themes of compassion, proactivity, and empathy from the institution.
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