Twitter, Social Services and Covid-19: Analysis of Interactions between Political Parties and Citizens

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

 han existido propuestas de la sociedad civil y la universidad a las administraciones publicas , Ayuntamientos y Junta de Andalucia , por ejemplo en esta propuesta enviada al poco de desatarse la pandemia ,  como ejemplo este Plan Integral   https://trabajosocialsevilla.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Plan-integral-personas-mayores-COVID-19.pdf 

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

First of all, we would like to thank you for reviewing the manuscript and for the comments and considerations towards the research conducted. We would like to respond to your suggestion in the manuscript:

-We thought it appropriate and advisable to cite the suggested comprehensive plan. It is marked in green highlighting, and the bibliographical reference to the plan is also included in lines 640 and 641.

We hope that the changes and suggestions made by you will be to your liking and satisfaction and, finally, we would like to reiterate our thanks to you for revising the manuscript for its improvement and publication.

Kind regards,

Reviewer 2 Report

1. A brief summary

1.1.  Summary

It is an article that through qualitative analysis describes the use of twitter by citizens, social services and political parties between March 9 and April 28, 2020, during the first confinement against the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain. It makes a categorical exploration of perceptions by means of Atlas.Ti. The following objectives are: to know the perceptions about Social Services from Twitter, to define priority topics of these perceptions, and to identify profiles of those who participate. It fulfills all of them and provides new information; in addition, it does not plagiarize (I´ve used compilatio) and uses adequate bibliography without self-citations. The article does not incur in any ethical concerns. The study is a sui generis contribution in the field of social services, which is clear, logical, coherent and orderly with its objectives.

1.2. Reviewer Personal Considerations

The topic is original and well defined. The results could offer some usefulness to social services because they have been adequately interpreted. The conclusions are justified and supported by the results of the research, but in my opinion they should be revised to reduce generalizations that detract from the importance of the work, and focus more on the results themselves [e.g. maximizing the tweets (see Result lines, 341-447) in the conclusions].

The article, the data, the presentation of results are adequate to academic standards. As in all novel research, the robustness of the data is always a progressive construction, but it can be clearly stated that the methods, tools and software used have generated confidence in the reviewer. 

I apologize for not meeting the readers of the magazine, so I do not offer an answer as to whether the article might be of interest to them. For few or many? I have no idea.

But I think that this work could be beneficial for the Spanish social services, the citizenship that demands them and the academia of social workers. There will be readers with social and communicational interest who will be attracted and who will surely be able to offer their articles to be published.

2. Broad comments

Like any article, this one has its strengths and weaknesses.

2.1. Some Strengths

"Twitter, Social Services and Covid-19" has a broad introduction that places the reader in the perspective of the authors by suggesting to analyze Twitter as a total social fact, presenting the social and professional uses (particularly of some social workers), of information, social networks, of Twitter and the relationship between social services, Covid-19 and Twitter.

It is a topical issue because, in fact, social services, both public and private, have been directly affected by Covid-19, which has called into question the quality of the provision of social services, both private and public, and has particularly targeted the elderly, although it is also true - but not said - for its progressive dismantling in the last three decades.

In the Materials and Methods section, a search for categories and an analysis based mainly on ATLa. Ti, and complies with it, presenting tables, graphs and tweet contents, which will allow the reader to have a very interesting overview. Because it is focused and well delimited, it is not easy to demand a diachronic or synchronic dimension to the study.

In the results, the reader will find the information that gives concordance to the sections (introduction,methods, discussion and conclusions), which is well developed, readable and makes the study understandable.

The organization responds to the objectives, since they give an idea of the perceptions of the social services of citizens, social workers and politicians. In terms of results, we can clearly read the density of tweets generated in the period studied, typology of sources by volume of tweets, their territorial distribution (understanding that proportionally, the Basque Country has been more active).

2.2. Weaknesses

I might point out that the information in the introduction (lines 23-40) while precisely organized to talk about general Covid-19 milestones, seems not relevant. They seem so because the data they offer are quite well known and multicited and do not guide to the heart of the work. That is: they are not linked to social services or to the State of Alarm resulting from the declaration of the pandemic.

I suggest linking them (Vr.gr. answer if in China (Wuhan) appeared tweets related to covid-19 and social services during December 2019 (although twitter is censored in China, services like Xinhua use it), or other countries. Is there any record of tweets issued in Spain in those first moments or informative references with that specific contents.

> It would be interesting, for the work, to specify if 845 Tweets allow "To focus especially on political speeches and their use of social networks".

 >Do 845 Tweets serve to "highlight the reality of Social Services in a broad sense at the national level"?

3. Specific comments

An English language review is not superfluous.

Line 64 - why is there an estimated 417 million tweets about the Covid-19 for the period? How many of those tweets were in Spain and how many of the Spanish were these about social services? Could you show the value of that figure for the research done?

Lines 417- 418. It would be interesting to return to the quote, both in the analysis and in the conclusions, in specific reference to social work professionals, to write a brief allusion to them that is needed.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

First of all, we would like to thank you for reviewing the manuscript and for the comments and considerations towards the research. In the following, we respond to your suggestions and changes to the manuscript:

1.2. Reviewer's personal considerations.

- Some generalisations have been reduced and the text has chosen to highlight the literal citation of the most important and salient tweets from the discourse analysis in Atla.Ti 8.

2.2. Weaknesses

-The suggested part of the text from line 27 to 43 has been deleted. The deleted parts of the document have been highlighted in yellow.

-It would be interesting for the paper to specify whether 845 Tweets allows to "Focus especially on political discourses and their use of social networks": This issue has been specified from line 257 to 259. It has also been removed from the broader sense in line 264.

-Do the 845 Tweets serve to "highlight the reality of Social Services in a broad sense at national level": This question has been specified in lines 209 and 210.

Specific comments

- Why is it estimated that there are 417 million tweets about Covid-19 for the period? How many of those tweets were in Spain and how many of the Spanish ones were about social services? Could you show the value of that figure for the research conducted: This has been included in lines 69 and 70.

- Lines 417- 418. It would be interesting to take up the quotation, both in the analysis and in the conclusions, in specific reference to social work professionals, to write a brief allusion to them that is necessary: The quotation specified in the conclusions has been taken up again, specifically from lines 551 to 556.

We hope that the changes and suggestions made by you will be to your liking and satisfaction and, finally, we would like to reiterate our thanks to you for revising the manuscript for its improvement and publication.

Kind regards,