Data Analysis

With the help of text mining methods, the most frequently tagged accounts/(mention), the most used hashtags and the highest number of repeated words in the data set were determined on the data set.

The pandemic has changed many things, at the centre of our ongoing lives. There­fore, as it is the main agenda itself, the events that it affects can also find a place in Twitter messages. When the subjects that are tagged the most through the data set are examined, it is seen that the “#yks” topic is tagged at the highest rate. The reason for this is that the date of collecting the data set is the Higher Education Institutions Examination (YKS), which is the university entrance exam. Changing the YKS exam date due to the pandemic shows that this tag is used in large amounts in the collected data. The fact that the selected “#ykstarihinedokunma” (do not touch my YKS) header is among the most tagged headers is an important indicator of this (Fig. 13.3).

Coronavirus and similar headers are the most tagged titles, although they are used with different expressions. It is seen at the top of our epidemic data set, albeit with a few different hashtags. It is observed that the topics “#corona”, “#corona”, “#covid” and “# coronavirus” are predominant in the data set due to the different topics used by the users. Examining the other topics tagged by users, “#avmler”, (malls) “#evdekal” (stayhome), “#maske” (mask) and “#bayram” (holiday) topics, draws attention.

Fig. 13.3 Most mention and hashtags. Source Created by author

Figure 13.4 contains the most frequently tagged account names by users. The most frequently tagged account names by users are the personal account of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the personal account of Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca. The highest-level officials of the state are sought as the addressee of the issue

Fig. 13.4 Accounts with the most mentions.

in the tags used. It is normal for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to appear at the top in the titles and tags examined in the study, since he has many followers on the Twitter platform and his posts interact with his followers too much.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca drew attention with his intensive Twitter use during the pandemic process. In fact, this busy Twitter use became the subject of another research (Atila 2020). With the contribution of the minister’s announcement of the daily cases on his social media account and his posts about the pandemic during the day, he ranked second among the most tagged accounts. When the posts of the users who shared the most used “#yks” hashtag in Fig. 13.4 are examined, it was seen that they tagged more than one account name. In addition, the personal Twitter account of the Minister of National Education Ziya Selςuk is among the most tagged due to the fact that the schools continued in the form of remote education and the school term was terminated. As a corporate account, it is seen that “saglikbakanligi” (Ministry of Health) and “tcbestepe” (Republic of Turkey Be§tepe) accounts are heavily tagged. Looking at the labels in general, it is seen that the messages are directed to the top management of the state. President and Minister of Health Twitter accounts are the most tagged accounts. The Twitter accounts of ministers, ruling parties, vice president, presidential spokesperson and head of communication, which are always in the spotlight in the process and are on the agenda, are among those that have been intensely tagged.

As shown in Fig. 13.4 data, it is clear that unrelated words and accounts are also tagged in the list. Here, Twitter’s own agenda comes into play; more words can be tagged than the words we have specified. However, it seems that this remains only a limited day and event.

The number of words in the data set is shown in Fig.

Since different words related to Coronavirus were used in the data analysis, all words were added separately to the data set. The numbers are scattered because the words pointing to the virus are different. However, if these expressions are combined in a single account, the most common expression in the messages is again the words that point to the pandemic. The words health, death and mask also reflect the realities of the pandemic period. Even the mask emoji is among the most used emojis in the relevant period.

It has been observed that the messages containing the words support, help and social mostly draw attention to the difficulties of economic life. The economic measures of the pandemic period are also discussed within these messages. During this period, the Eid El-Fitr was among the most used words. Children and holidays are among the top shares.

Additional explanation of Fig. 13.5 (TurkishZEnglish)

Destek: support

Yardim: help

Qocuk: kid

Fig. 13.5 Maximum number of words in messages. Source Created by author

Bayram: festival (religious festival)

CHP: main opposition party

Maske: mask

Sosyal: social

Egitim: education

Virus: virus

Saglik: health

Olum: death.

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