Korrika, nortasun kolektiboaren eraikuntzarako: #korrika22-ren aztarna digitalaren azterketa

Abstract

Korrika is the most popular and participative event in favour of a minority language such as basque. The participants run around 2,000 kilometres in relays for eleven days without interruption. This research analyses the twenty-second digital Korrika on Twitter, the first one held after the pandemic, combining Social Network Analysis and Descriptive Content Analysis. A total of 52,210 tweets from 13,739 cyberactivists were captured and analysed (from 1 March to April 30, 2022), extracting relevant data on the leaders of the conversation, the language used, the most viralised content, etc. The results show that the online community mobilises digitally accompanying the physical event and promotes a horizontal and cohesive digital Korrika, with shared leadership and using different languages to foster activist links with other international communities sensitive to minority languages. On the other hand, the most viralised contents, in audiovisual format, contribute to build by visual metaphors a collective Basque identity related to effort, romanticism, courage, cooperation, etc. Another notable phenomenon is that the conversation mainly revolves around positive messages and symbols, and the online community effectively isolates hate speech. The methodological design of this research has the potential to be replicated in the observation of other social phenomena with the aim of converting the data (interactions on Twitter) into knowledge that can be used by the scientific community or the actors involved in strategic decision-making.