Key Influencers in Public Diplomacy 2.0 : a Country-Based Social Network Analysis
- Ingenhoff, Diana University of Fribourg
- Calamai, Giada University of Fribourg
- Sevin, Efe Towson University
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2021
Published in:
- Social Media + Society. - SAGE Publications. - 2021, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 1-12
English
This article presents a study of Twitter-based communication in order to identify key influencers and to assess the role of their communication in shaping country images. The analysis is based on a 2-month dataset comprised of all tweets including hashtags of the three countries selected for this study: Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Following a two-step flow model of communication, we initially identified the influential Twitter users in all three countries based on their centrality measures. Subsequently, we carried out a qualitative content analysis of tweets posted by these influential users. Finally, we assessed the similarities and differences across the three country cases. This article offers new insights into public diplomacy 2.0 activities by discussing influence within the context of country images and demonstrating how opinion leaders can play a more dominant role than states or other political actors in creating and disseminating content related to country image. The findings also provide practical insights in the production of a country’s image and its representation on new media platforms.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management
- Department
- Département des sciences de la communication et des médias
- Language
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- English
- Classification
- Information, communication and media sciences
- License
- License undefined
- Identifiers
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- RERO DOC 333209
- DOI 10.1177/2056305120981053
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/309461
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