Politics and the Pandemic: A sentiment analysis of COVID-19 across America

Abstract

All around the world, people use social media platforms like Twitter to express opinions on policy and communicate information on coronavirus (COVID-19). This project explores the sentiment of American tweets from six different cities regarding the pandemic and associated political grievances. I examine three metropolitan areas that displayed the lowest vote share for President Trump in the 2016 election, comparing them with three cities that exhibited the highest vote share for President Trump during the 2016 election. Since the declaration of the pandemic, researchers have used data sources like Twitter to test public opinion toward subjects like reopening and policy reactions. My research focuses on how regions of differing political opinions may feel different emotions about varying topics relating to the pandemic. Tweets collected per city did not vary in amount of each emotion I analyzed; however, upon further study, the tweet content differed across liberal versus conservative discourses.