On the Potential of Twitter for Understanding the Tunisia of the Post-Arab Spring

TL;DR

This paper explores how Twitter can be used to understand social and linguistic aspects of Tunisia post-Arab Spring by analyzing tweet content, language, and usage patterns.

Contribution

It is the first study to systematically analyze Tunisian Twitter data focusing on geographic, linguistic, and usage insights post-Arab Spring.

Findings

Presence of Tunisia in international tweets analyzed

Languages used by Tunisian residents identified

Twitter usage patterns across Tunisia examined

Abstract

Micro-blogging through Twitter has made information short and to the point, and more importantly systematically searchable. This work is the first of a series in which quotidian observations about Tunisia are obtained using the micro-blogging site Twitter. Data was extracted using the open source Twitter API v1.1. Specific tweets were obtained using functional search operators in particular thematic hash tags, geo-location, date, time and language. The presence of Tunisia in the international tweet stream, the language of communication of Tunisian residents through Twitter as well as Twitter usage across Tunisia are the center of attention of this article.