The "Green Pass" Controversy in the Italian Twittersphere: a Digital Methods Mapping

Abstract

In this paper we developed a digital methods mapping of the controversy arises from the adoption of the so-called "Green Pass" in Italy Adopting an "agnostic" approach to our object of study, we used a well-established research design: namely, to collect all the tweets that contain words related to conversations about the green pass in Italy (e.g.: green pass, #greenpass). In this way, the sample collected amounts to 4.307.487 tweets, published between June 15, 2021, and December 15, 2021. To bring out the "voices" of the different actors involved in the controversy we adopted a quali-quantitative approach: on the one hand, by means of computational techniques, we reconstructed the structural relations in which the actors are involved and its evolution over time; on the other hand, by means of content analysis we enriched our map with an interpretation of the discourse surrounding the controversy. Finally, these cartographic results are discussed considering the Italian media system functioning, in order to understand how its conformation may have influenced the public debate concerning the green pass.

Keywords

• public debate
• controversy mapping
• digital methods
• covid-19
• green pass