scholarly journals Countering COVID-19: A European survey on acceptability of and commitment to preventive measures

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Sabat ◽  
N Elsem Varghese ◽  
S Neuman-Böhme ◽  
P Pita Barros ◽  
W Brouwer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
High Level ◽  
Movement Tracking ◽  
Representative Samples

Abstract To understand the public sentiment toward the measures used by policymakers for COVID-19 containment, a survey among representative samples of the population in seven European countries was carried out in the first two weeks of April 2020. The study addressed people's support for containment policies, worries about COVID-19 consequences, and trust in sources of information. Citizens were overall satisfied with their government's response to the pandemic; however, the extent of approval differed across countries and policy measures. A north-south divide in public opinion was noticeable across the European states. It was particularly pronounced for intrusive policy measures, such as mobile data use for movement tracking, economic concerns, and trust in the information from the national government. Considerable differences in people's attitudes were noticed within countries, especially across individual regions and age groups. The findings suggest that the epidemic acts as a stressor, causing health and economic anxieties even in households that were not directly affected by the virus. At the same time, the burden of stress was unequally distributed across regions and age groups. Based on the data collected, we draw lessons from the containment stage and identify several insights that can facilitate the design of lockdown exit strategies and future containment policies so that a high level of compliance can be expected. Key messages Citizens were overall satisfied with their government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak. A north-south pattern in public opinion was observed across the European states.

scholarly journals Perceptions About Sexual Offenses: Misconceptions, Punitiveness, and Public Sentiment

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura L. King
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Offending ◽  
Punitive Attitudes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sexual Offenses ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
High Level

Decades of research on public opinion about crime reveal varying, yet relatively punitive attitudes that are often riddled with misconceptions. Sparked by the increased media and legislative attention devoted to sex offenders beginning in the 1990s, researchers began to more closely examine public opinion about sexual offenses. Findings suggest the public adheres to several misconceptions about sexual offenses and supports harsh sanctions for offenders. However, further research is warranted to more closely examine the relationships among these variables. Thus, the goal of the present study was to survey Pennsylvania residents to examine the degree to which misconceptions about sexual offenses inform punitiveness. The results supported the hypotheses in that a high level of support for misconceptions and punitiveness was identified, and adherence to misconceptions was the strongest predictor of punitiveness. These findings demonstrate a clear need for educational and awareness efforts to dispel public misconceptions about sexual offending and victimization.

Has Anyone Seen It?

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmar Radin ◽  
Aleksandar Džakula
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Health Care Performance ◽  
Policy Arena ◽  
Care Performance

Over the past decade, public opinion surveys have shown that Croats are deeply dissatisfied with their health care system and asses it to be one of the most important issues. However, health care hardly makes it into any political discourse in Croatia. This study analyzes the results of a public opinion survey conducted before the 2007 parliamentary elections to find out what the public sentiment on health care performance in Croatia is and to analyze the reasons why health care is not addressed by political actors. Evidence suggests that while health care is the most salient issue today, the public often understands it poorly. Thus, in a political environment of competing issues, and given the complexity of tacking health care in the policy arena, politicians strategically avoid discussing the issue.

Revealing public opinion towards COVID-19 vaccines with Twitter data in the United States: a spatiotemporal perspective (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Hu ◽  
Siqin Wang ◽  
Wei Luo ◽  
Mengxi Zhang ◽  
Xiao Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Spatiotemporal Trends ◽  
The Us ◽  
Key Events

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a large, initially uncontrollable, public health crisis both in the US and across the world, with experts looking to vaccines as the ultimate mechanism of defense. The development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly advancing via global efforts. Hence, it is crucial for governments, public health officials, and policy makers to understand public attitudes and opinions towards vaccines, such that effective interventions and educational campaigns can be designed to promote vaccine acceptance OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate public opinion and perception on COVID-19 vaccines by investigating the spatiotemporal trends of their sentiment and emotion towards vaccines, as well as how such trends relate to popular topics on Twitter in the US METHODS We collected over 300,000 geotagged tweets in the US from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. We examined the spatiotemporal patterns of public sentiment and emotion over time at both national and state scales and identified three phases along the pandemic timeline with the significant changes of public sentiment and emotion, further linking to eleven key events and major topics as the potential drivers to induce such changes via cloud mapping of keywords and topic modelling RESULTS An increasing trend of positive sentiment in parallel with the decrease of negative sentiment are generally observed in most states, reflecting the rising confidence and anticipation of the public towards vaccines. The overall tendency of the eight types of emotion implies the trustiness and anticipation of the public to vaccination, accompanied by the mixture of fear, sadness and anger. Critical social/international events and/or the announcements of political leaders and authorities may have potential impacts on the public opinion on vaccines. These factors, along with important topics and manual reading of popular posts on eleven key events, help identify underlying themes and validate insights from the analysis CONCLUSIONS The analyses of near real-time social media big data benefit public health authorities by enabling them to monitor public attitudes and opinions towards vaccine-related information in a geo-aware manner, address the concerns of vaccine skeptics and promote the confidence of individuals within a certain region or community, towards vaccines

Research on Key Technology of Internet Public Sentiment

2014 ◽  
Vol 926-930 ◽  
pp. 2030-2033
Author(s):  
De Zhi An ◽  
Yun Ke
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Public Opinion Research ◽  
Key Technology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
The Status

Public opinion research is a new internet discipline of social science and natural science. As a hot spot of public opinion research, the research on the public opinion on the Internet has attracted much attention. By analyzing the status of the research on the public opinion on the Internet in China, this paper establishes the basic framework of the research on the public opinion on the Internet. Then some key technology issues are researched in detail. Based on the method and key technology, the paper introduces the design and implement about the platform of Internet Public Sentiment. This paper is expected to have the value to apply the Internet public sentiment analysis.

scholarly journals Revealing public opinion towards COVID-19 vaccines using Twitter data in the United States: a spatiotemporal perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Hu ◽  
Siqin Wang ◽  
Wei Luo ◽  
Yingwei Yan ◽  
Mengxi Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Spatiotemporal Trends ◽  
The Us ◽  
Key Events

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a large, initially uncontrollable, public health crisis both in the United States (US) and across the world, with experts looking to vaccines as the ultimate mechanism of defense. The development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly advancing via global efforts. Hence, it is crucial for governments, public health officials, and policy makers to understand public attitudes and opinions towards vaccines, such that effective interventions and educational campaigns can be designed to promote vaccine acceptance. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate public opinion and perception on COVID-19 vaccines by investigating the spatiotemporal trends of their sentiment and emotion towards vaccines, as well as how such trends relate to popular topics on Twitter in the US. Methods: We collected over 300,000 geotagged tweets in the US from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. We examined the spatiotemporal patterns of public sentiment and emotion over time at both national and state scales and identified three phases along the pandemic timeline with the significant changes of public sentiment and emotion. We further linked the changes to eleven key events and major topics as the potential drivers to induce such changes via cloud mapping of keywords and topic modeling. Results: An increasing trend of positive sentiment in parallel with the decrease of negative sentiment are generally observed in most states, reflecting the rising confidence and anticipation of the public towards COVID-19 vaccines. The overall tendency of the eight types of emotion implies the trustiness and anticipation of the public to vaccination, accompanied by the mixture of fear, sadness and anger. Critical social/international events and/or the announcements of political leaders and authorities may have potential impacts on the public opinion on vaccines. These factors, along with important topics and manual reading of popular posts on eleven key events, help identify underlying themes and validate insights from the analysis. Conclusions: The analyses of near real-time social media big data benefit public health authorities by enabling them to monitor public attitudes and opinions towards vaccine-related information in a geo-aware manner, address the concerns of vaccine skeptics and promote the confidence of individuals within a certain region or community, towards vaccines.

scholarly journals ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF INFORMATION TO SUPPORT A SET OF STATISTICAL INDICATORS OF THE BOOK PUBLISHING

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olena Horobets
Keyword(s):  
Digital Libraries ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
Statistical Information ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Book Publishing Industry ◽  
The Public ◽  
Alternative Sources ◽  
High Level ◽  
Statistical Indicators

Issues of supporting the book publishing as an economic activity by a set of statistical indicators are investigated. It is found out that the existing set of statistical indicators does not meet the needs of researchers and practitioners, which is the case of not only Ukraine, but the global book publishing area. The case of the Ukrainian book publishing is taken for analysis to identify core problems faced by this industry. It is emphasized that a comprehensive study of the book publishing industry and presentation of the statistical information with high level of quality and aggregation requires the involvement of new alternative sources of data, of which big data should be highlighted. The component of scientific novelty is that an updated system of statistical indicators is proposed for the first time, with eight modules of sources of statistical information as alternative ones: questionnaires, electronic books, digital libraries, websites of publishers and bookstores, electronic diaries of reading (Goodreads as an example), social networks (Instagram, Facebook, Telegram (open channels)), video hosts (YouTube being the most popular one), and blogs. It is stressed that all the modules of alternative data must be involved for obtaining reliable data, where output data will be processed anew and have direct and reverse links, which will require the use of neural networks with efferent type of links. This statistical support to the book publishing industry is an innovation designed to meet urgent needs of the public and official statistics.

Bohaterowie czy antybohateriowie? Medialne wcielenia monarchów a problem „rozpadu” Hiszpanii

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (49) ◽  
pp. 70-81
Author(s):  
Maja Biernacka
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Media Images ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
Financial Scandals ◽  
The Media ◽  
High Level

The article is dedicated to the media images of the Spanish Bourbon monarchy, especially the King Felipe VI and his wife Letizia, accompanied with an analysis of their role as (super) heroes or antiheroes of the nation. The author presents the problem of their standing in the public opinion in the face of participation of the royal family members in numerous political, sex and financial scandals, but also general crisis of the monarchy in Spain. Additional factors which make the King’s role of a superhero infeasible is a high level of contestation of the national idea in the society and augmenting secessionist tendencies, especially in Catalonia. In the atmosphere of probable disintegration of the Spanish state the monarch is unable to take substantial measures but remains obliged to make reference to them in his ceremonial public statements.

Reconciling public opinion and WTO rules under the SPS Agreement

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
TRACEY EPPS
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Regulatory Decision ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Phytosanitary Measures ◽  
Evidence Requirement

AbstractThe WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) allows Members to enact SPS measures necessary to protect health so long as they are based on scientific evidence. This scientific evidence requirement has attracted controversy among academics, policy-makers, and civil society. The argument has been advanced that the requirement inappropriately excludes the consideration of public opinion in the domestic risk regulatory decision-making process. The article addresses the question of whether it is possible to reconcile the SPS Agreement's requirement for scientific evidence with concerns regarding exclusion of the public voice in the domestic regulatory process. It responds positively to this query, subject to certain caveats to ensure that trade liberalization goals are not undermined. It argues that the scientific evidence requirement is not only the most appropriate means available for advancing the SPS Agreement's objectives, but that it provides countries with more flexibility than critics contend, including to respond to public sentiment in cases of scientific uncertainty. Recommendations are made as to how panels and the Appellate Body should proceed in disputes under the SPS Agreement, and how governments can comply with their trade obligations while remaining responsive to public concerns.

The Working of the State-Wide Referendum in Illinois

1911 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-417
Author(s):  
C. O. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Vote ◽  
Constitutional Convention ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Fundamental Law

The Illinois constitution of 1870 contains several specific provisions for state-wide referenda. In addition to a popular vote on all proposed changes in the fundamental law, a referendum is required on the question of disposing of Illinois and Michigan Canal lands, on incurring state indebtedness above a certain sum, on acts or amendments thereto creating banking corporations, and on additional appropriations for the state house. The Public Opinion law of 1901 enlarged the field of the referendum by providing for the submission of questions of public policy, the result to be considered merely as an expression of public sentiment. This law and the constitutional provisions mentioned above constitute the sum total of all sources for referenda affecting the entire state.The constitutions of 1818 and 1848 provided for even fewer opportunities for a popular vote on public measures. The earlier of these documents contained only one section relating to a referendum of any sort, and it dealt with the question of calling a constitutional convention. The second constitution enlarged the total number of possible questions so as to include two others.

scholarly journals Public Opinion toward Foreign Policy in a Developing World Democracy: Evidence from Indian Views of China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Milliff ◽  
Paul Staniland
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
International System ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
International Issues ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Research And Policy

India is the world’s largest democracy and is growing steadily more important in the international system, yet we know very little about how India’s public thinks about international issues. This has become even more important as India-China relations have declined dramatically in recent years. This paper explores public opinion toward China by leveraging both historical survey data since the 1960s, and modern, scientific surveys from the 2000s onward. This is a unique compilation of survey evidence that allows for the study of both trends and rigorous individual-level analyses. We put it into dialogue with general disciplinary questions about the dynamics of public opinion toward foreign policy, focusing on China. Two main findings emerge. First, aggregate trends in views of China broadly track the general political situation between the two countries. We do not see clear evidence one way or another of whether the public is simply following leaders: in the 1960s, there is circumstantial evidence of elite-led opinion, but in the last decade, elite efforts to maintain a cordial relationship with China coexisted with increasingly hostile public sentiment. Second, we delve within these aggregate trends find systematic sub-national variation in attitudes. Foreign policy attitudes have fairly stable regional differences, and poorer and less educated respondents are systematically more likely to not respond when asked about foreign policy and world affairs. While there are aggregate trends that track broader geopolitical tides, there remains important heterogeneity within Indian opinion that requires further analysis. We conclude with implications for research and policy.

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