Driving citizen engagement through Twitter: The case of COVID‐19 vaccination drive in India

• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Author: Balamurugan Annamalai,Shabana Chandrasekaran,Atul Arun Pathak
• Date: 01 May 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2858

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Driving citizen engagement through Twitter: The case

of COVID-19 vaccination drive in India

Balamurugan Annamalai

1

| Shabana Chandrasekaran

2

| Atul Arun Pathak

3

1

Marketing Area, Xavier Institute of

Management, XIM University, Bhubaneswar,

India

2

Operations Management and Decision

Sciences Area, Xavier Institute of

Management, XIM University, Bhubaneswar,

India

3

Strategy and Entrepreneurship Area, Indian

Institute of Management Nagpur, Nagpur,

India

Correspondence

Balamurugan Annamalai, Department of

Marketing, Xavier Institute of Management,

XIM University, Xavier square, Bhubaneswar

751013, India.

Email: balamurugan@xim.edu.in

Effective crisis communication is essential to efficiently handle the uncertainty and

anxiousness of citizens during the COVID-19 crisis. Government Twitter handles are

an excellent platform for faster information dissemination and engaging citizens.

While most government ministries actively use Twitter, limited attention is given to

its modus operandi. Using data retrieved from the official Twitter handle of 'The Min-

istry of Health and Family Welfare' (MOHFW) of India, the current study examines

the effect of the content characteristics, including content type and media type, on

citizen engagement measured as tweet likes and retweets. The findings are based on

3742 tweets from MOHFW, recording more than 4.06 million likes and 1.23 million

retweets over the initial six months of the largest COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Results show that content-sharing guidance for stakeholders gained the maximum

engagement, while the latest news about the COVID-19 crisis resulted in the least

engagement. Photos gained maximum engagement, while statuses resulted in the

least engagement. The results illuminate the textual features of the government's

Twitter communication and will enable policymakers to manage their social media

content strategy diligently.

KEYWORDS

citizen engagement, content strategy, COVID-19, crisis management, government, social media,

Twitter

1|INTRODUCTION

Over the last century, vaccination has been recognised as a potent

weapon for preventing various diseases and pandemics affecting

human beings (Rémy et al., 2015). According to estimates, about 3 mil-

lion deaths are prevented annually due to vaccination programs.

Life-threatening diseases such as smallpox, polio, and Haemophilus

influenza type B (Hib), among others, have been eliminated from large

parts of the world where national governments and other agencies

have successfully run vaccination programs.

The crucial role of a rapid rollout of a global vaccination program

in the war against the newly emerged, currently ongoing COVID-19

pandemic, especially in developing countries such as India, cannot be

overstated. In the long run, such deadly pandemics are brought under

control by achieving herd immunity in the general population. Herd

immunity can only be reached if a significant percentage of the target

population receives vaccination or builds antibodies through infection

by the disease. Suppose a large proportion of the population gets

infected in a pandemic. In that case, the overall death count becomes

unacceptably large even if the disease's fatality rate is low to moder-

ate. Given this stark scenario, vaccinations must be rolled out rapidly

to cover the vulnerable population and minimise human misery and

death. This is especially true in developing countries with large popu-

lations, such as India, South Africa, and Brazil. However, lack of

awareness, misinformation, fear of adverse effects, a general distrust

of the government, and the effect of anti-vaccination campaigns by

various social, political and religious groups have been detrimental to

achieving a faster immunisation rate (Scannell et al., 2021).

To overcome these challenges, governments need to strategise

and implement effective policies for public health crisis management

(Coombs, 2007). An integral dimension of such crisis management is

effective communication with citizens. Effective engagement with

Received: 24 December 2021 Revised: 25 December 2022 Accepted: 17 March 2023

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2858

J Public Affairs. 2023;23:e2858. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of14

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2858