COVID, BLM, and the polarization of US politicians on Twitter

Anmol Panda; Divya Siddarth; Joyojeet Pal

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arXiv · 2008.03263

COVID, BLM, and the polarization of US politicians on Twitter

Anmol Panda·Divya Siddarth·Joyojeet Pal

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Abstract

We mapped the tweets of 520 US Congress members, focusing on analyzing their engagement with two broad topics: first, the COVID-19 pandemic, and second, the recent wave of anti-racist protest. We find that, in discussing COVID-19, Democrats frame the issue in terms of public health, while Republicans are more likely to focus on small businesses and the economy. When looking at the discourse around anti-Black violence, we find that Democrats are far more likely to name police brutality as a specific concern. In contrast, Republicans not only discuss the issue far less, but also keep their terms more general, as well as criticizing perceived protest violence.

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Anmol Panda, Divya Siddarth, Joyojeet Pal. 2020-08-07. COVID, BLM, and the polarization of US politicians on Twitter. https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.03263

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