#Globalcitizen: An Explorative Twitter Analysis of Global Identity and Sustainability Communication

Marie Merle, Gerhard Reese and Stefan Drews
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Marie Merle: Department of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, 76829 Landau, Germany
Gerhard Reese: Department of Psychology, Environmental Psychology Research Unit, University of Koblenz-Landau, 76829 Landau, Germany

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: (1) Background: global citizenship is often associated with pro-social and pro-environmental attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Much of this research relies on questionnaire studies, whereas studies drawing on naturally occurring daily communications are under-used. In this paper, we analyse the content that users publish on Twitter related to the issue of global identity and citizenship. (2) Methods: we assessed word frequencies and associated hashtags of 35,237 tweets marked with the hashtag #globalcitizen. A sentiment analysis was conducted to investigate the moods and emotions of the tweets. (3) Results: in line with expectations derived from social identity theory, we found that associated words and hashtags were more often linked to themes of common good/disadvantaged groups than they were to the topic of nature and environment. Providing evidence for an empowerment function of global citizenship, the sentiment analysis suggests that global citizenship is related to rather positive emotions. (4) Conclusion: these findings reveal how identity constructions in social media predict associated contents and possibly pathways to social change.

Keywords: global citizenship; social identity; global identity; globalization; sentiment analysis; social networks; twitter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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