Digital Communication and the Reputation of the Ministry of Interior During Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Digital communication continues to shape various aspects of the modern society. Qatar is no exception to the countries where the activities of both the government and private sectors are considerably influenced by digital communication. Big data analytics can always be used to extract valuable information from seemingly discrete and random sources. Typically, Twitter remains one of the leading sources of raw data on public response to daily life, from social policies to current affairs. Recent studies have been exploring various ways of generating corpora of Twitter messages, as well as scrutinizing different methods of analyzing the data obtained; however, little has been written on governmental responses to the potential of drawing a wide range of data on public mood from Twitter communications. This thesis examines how interactions across digital platforms reveal the state-of-the-art of government activities, and define their operations in response to any cases of public dissatisfaction. The research adopts a mixed-methods design, consisting of quantitative and qualitative analysis. In particular, the study applies qualitative and quantitative methods in order to analyze tweets posted by the Qatari Ministry of Interior during the period between January and December 2020. The results reveal polarity, stance and sentiment that tend to shape the digital operations of Qatar’s MOI.