Twitter data analysis as contribution to strategic foresight-The case of the EU Research Project “Foresight and Modelling for European Health Policy and Regulations” (FRESHER)

Abstract

In this article the value of Twitter data analysis for a strategic foresight exercise is discussed. The article offers an overview of Twitter’s basic functionalities, previous Twitter research and related studies on using Twitter in foresight projects to date. Based on this knowledge the case of the EU research project “Foresight and Modelling for European Health Policy and Regulations“(FRESHER) is used to conduct a Twitter data analysis in three steps: an analysis of web-links to get insights into the content spread via Twitter, a social network analysis to define central actors in a Twitter debate, and a hashtag-analysis to find out which topics are discussed and to support the identification of drivers of noncommunicable diseases. The article shows the benefit a Twitter data analysis provides for the FRESHER project and reveals implications for future research in this field.