Social Networks for COVID-19 Across Africa

Abstract

This study sheds new light on understanding COVID-19 response in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe by employing social network analysis for Twitter. This study finds that African countries have different social networks for COVID-19. For instance, news media play an important role in South Africa, governmental key players exert a significant impact on Nigeria, and African key players play a significant role in Ghana. The Ministries play a significant role in Kenya, institutes and organizations play a critical role in Zambia, and the Minister of Health and the President of Zimbabwe play an important role in Zimbabwe. Second, African countries show different social network systems according to groups. For example, Kenya shows the most active communication networks across groups, whereas Zambia shows the least communication networks across groups among the six countries. Third, African countries have different top-mentioned tweeters in the networks. For example, South Africa shows news media, Ghana and Zambia have international organizations, and Nigeria, Kenya, and Zimbabwe exhibit government institutes as the top-mentioned tweeter. Therefore, governments and policymakers should understand the characteristics of social networks of COVID-19 to cope with the pandemic effectively.