THE USE OF TWITTER BY THE GOVERMENTS OF SAUDI ARABIA AND THE UNITED STATES IN LIGHT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A COMPARISON STUDY

Abstract

Abstract Covid-19 has brought a change in almost every aspect of the society. However, since the pandemic is still in its infancy, not much has been studied about the dynamics it has affected. This includes communication in the age of the pandemic. This study examines the use of Twitter by the U.S. and Saudi governments to determine similarities and differences in their approaches. The study adopted a qualitative research approach, and content analysis to be more precise. In addition, the target population included social media messages disseminated by the KSA and U.S. governments during this period of COVID-19, that is, from April 2020 until April 2021. The Twitter messages that the researcher looked for were those that related to Covid-19, especially those that concern curbing the spread of the pandemic. The researcher adopted convenience sampling to select the messages, while the collection of data was through observing including reading the content of the study's messages. The findings showed that the two governments used the same tone of urgency in their messages. Besides, the messages disseminated by each regime were relatively lengthy by Twitter standards. Moreover, the messages from each government were retweeted several times. The messages, as well, emphasized the authority and credibility of the sender. Furthermore, each regime focused on providing updates of what was happening in the country in the light of the pandemic. A major difference was that the KSA government replied to every comment under each of its tweets about Covid-19 by offering constructive feedback. Additionally, the U.S. tweets about Covid-19 tended to report measures the government was taking or was intending to take to cushion the effects of the pandemic. None of the KSA’s tweets contained such messages. The results show that including links to fundamental resources concerning Covid-19 and keeping the tweets brief were the most effective strategies while infrequent replies to the users was the least effective approach.