Perception Gaps Between Hashtag Stakeholders on X (Twitter) - Application on the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (#NDIS)

A hashtag on X (Twitter) can attract a range of stakeholders with diverse perceptions on the hashtag. Under-standing and considering the differences between these stake-holders' perceptions on specific hashtags can be highly valuable for policy making in both public and private sectors. This paper proposes a framework to analyse the depth and width of the perception gap between stakeholders of a hashtag using sentiment analysis and zero-shot learning on large scale Twitter data. The framework was applied to the hashtag “#NDIS”, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Australia's pilot personalised disability service which provides funding to support people with disability. Over 155,000 tweets were collected and analysed to identify and assess the perception gap between the two most significant stakeholders (NDIS participants and service providers) on six main topics during the implementation of the NDIS. The study verified the effectiveness of the proposed framework, revealing a widespread perception gap between the two NDIS stakeholders, as well as differences in their online behaviours using Twitter. The results suggest that the NDIS policymakers and service providers should pay attention to the utilisation of social media, including hearing voice from the broader public and creating channels for transparent engagement with other NDIS stakeholders.