scholarly journals A Study on the Topic-Sentiment Evolution and Diffusion in Time Series of Public Opinion Derived from Emergencies

Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Meng Cai ◽  
Han Luo ◽  
Ying Cui

With the development of the Internet, social media has become an important platform for people to deal with emergencies and share information. When a public health emergency occurs, the public can understand the topics of the event and perceive the sentiments of others through social media, thus building a cooperative communication network. In this study, we took the public health emergency as the main research object and the natural disaster, accident, and social security event as the secondary research object and further revealed the law of the formation and evolution of public opinion through the analysis on temporal networks of topics and sentiments in social media platforms. Firstly, we identified the derived topics by constructing the topic model and used the sentiment classification model to divide the text sentiments of the derived topics into two types: positive sentiment and negative sentiment. Then, the ARIMA time series model was used to fit and predict the evolution and diffusion rules of topics and sentiments derived from public opinions on temporal networks. It was found that the evolution law of derived public opinions had similarities and differences in various types of emergencies and was closely related to government measures and media reports. The related research provides a foundation for the management of network public opinion and the realization of better emergency effects.

Author(s):  
Xuehua Han ◽  
Juanle Wang ◽  
Min Zhang ◽  
Xiaojie Wang

The outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a grave global public health emergency. Nowadays, social media has become the main channel through which the public can obtain information and express their opinions and feelings. This study explored public opinion in the early stages of COVID-19 in China by analyzing Sina-Weibo (a Twitter-like microblogging system in China) texts in terms of space, time, and content. Temporal changes within one-hour intervals and the spatial distribution of COVID-19-related Weibo texts were analyzed. Based on the latent Dirichlet allocation model and the random forest algorithm, a topic extraction and classification model was developed to hierarchically identify seven COVID-19-relevant topics and 13 sub-topics from Weibo texts. The results indicate that the number of Weibo texts varied over time for different topics and sub-topics corresponding with the different developmental stages of the event. The spatial distribution of COVID-19-relevant Weibo was mainly concentrated in Wuhan, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration. There is a synchronization between frequent daily discussions on Weibo and the trend of the COVID-19 outbreak in the real world. Public response is very sensitive to the epidemic and significant social events, especially in urban agglomerations with convenient transportation and a large population. The timely dissemination and updating of epidemic-related information and the popularization of such information by the government can contribute to stabilizing public sentiments. However, the surge of public demand and the hysteresis of social support demonstrated that the allocation of medical resources was under enormous pressure in the early stage of the epidemic. It is suggested that the government should strengthen the response in terms of public opinion and epidemic prevention and exert control in key epidemic areas, urban agglomerations, and transboundary areas at the province level. In controlling the crisis, accurate response countermeasures should be formulated following public help demands. The findings can help government and emergency agencies to better understand the public opinion and sentiments towards COVID-19, to accelerate emergency responses, and to support post-disaster management.


2014 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Sauter ◽  
Axel Bruns

This article uses the example of the mediatisation of Season 2 of the Australian documentary-cum-reality TV series Go Back to Where You Came From, and the associated #GoBackSBS Twitter feed, to investigate how public opinions are shaped, reshaped and expressed in new hybrid media ecologies. We explore how social media tools like Twitter can support the efforts of a TV production; provide spaces through which the public can engage ad hoc with a public event, be informed, shape their opinions and share them with others; and thus open up new possibilities for public discourse to occur. We suggest that new online public sphericules are emerging that provide spaces within which publics can engage with the cultural social and political realities with which they are confronted. In this way, we highlight the importance of mundane communication to the shaping and constant reshaping of public opinion.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meagan Marie Daoust

The healthcare trend of parental refusal or delay of childhood vaccinations will be investigated through a complex Cynefin Framework component in an economic and educational context, allowing patterns to emerge that suggest recommendations of change for the RN role and healthcare system. As a major contributing factor adding complexity to this trend, social media is heavily used for health related knowledge, making it is difficult to determine which information is most trustworthy. Missed opportunities for immunization can result, leading to economic and health consequences for the healthcare system and population. Through analysis of the powerful impact social media has on this evolving trend and public health, an upstream recommendation for RNs to respond with is to utilize reliable social media to the parents’ advantage within practice. The healthcare system should focus on incorporating vaccine-related education into existing programs and classes offered to parents, and implementing new vaccine classes for the public.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Liu ◽  
Hong Shan ◽  
Changli Tu ◽  
Meizhu Chen ◽  
Xiujuan Qu ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED Background: Since December 2019, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan city and rapidly spread throughout China. Facing this kind of public health emergency, an efficient, fast and group communication method is needed. Method: As a director of the department Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in a tertiary hospitals, which is the only designated one for diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 in a medium-sized city, I analyzed and summarized the “group function” of WeChat (Weixin, micro-message) App in working about COVID-19. Results: By February 16, 2020, we have completed 1,526 citywide consultations and treatment of 322 inpatients, including 97 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, with the help of 12 WeChat groups by handy. The advantages of WeChat group are as follows: 1. Work efficiency can be improved greatly, saving labor costs. 2. Accurate and intuitive information can be gotten fast and timely, avoiding close contacting with COVID-19 patients. 3. Data and message in WeChat groups can be saved, arranged and reviewed at any time. Conclusions: The “group function” in WeChat App plays a greater role in the public health emergent work about management, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272199545
Author(s):  
Areej Khokhar ◽  
Aaron Spaulding ◽  
Zuhair Niazi ◽  
Sikander Ailawadhi ◽  
Rami Manochakian ◽  
...  

Importance: Social media is widely used by various segments of society. Its role as a tool of communication by the Public Health Departments in the U.S. remains unknown. Objective: To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media following of the Public Health Departments of the 50 States of the U.S. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were collected by visiting the Public Health Department web page for each social media platform. State-level demographics were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention was utilized to collect information regarding the Governance of each State’s Public Health Department. Health rankings were collected from “America’s Health Rankings” 2019 Annual report from the United Health Foundation. The U.S. News and World Report Education Rankings were utilized to provide information regarding the public education of each State. Exposure: Data were pulled on 3 separate dates: first on March 5th (baseline and pre-national emergency declaration (NED) for COVID-19), March 18th (week following NED), and March 25th (2 weeks after NED). In addition, a variable identifying the total change across platforms was also created. All data were collected at the State level. Main Outcome: Overall, the social media following of the state Public Health Departments was very low. There was a significant increase in the public interest in following the Public Health Departments during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: With the declaration of National Emergency, there was a 150% increase in overall public following of the State Public Health Departments in the U.S. The increase was most noted in the Midwest and South regions of the U.S. The overall following in the pandemic “hotspots,” such as New York, California, and Florida, was significantly lower. Interesting correlations were noted between various demographic variables, health, and education ranking of the States and the social media following of their Health Departments. Conclusion and Relevance: Social media following of Public Health Departments across all States of the U.S. was very low. Though, the social media following significantly increased during the early course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still remains low. Significant opportunity exists for Public Health Departments to improve social media use to engage the public better.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Stone ◽  
D e b Leyland

Abstract In New Zealand there are 20 district health boards (DHBs) with local elections every 3 years. There is low voter turnout for these, we suspect because the public has low cognizance of the role DHBs have in governing their health and disability system. Good governance ensures everyone whatever ethnicity, gender or sexual proclivity, from birth to old age, able or disabled, mentally well or unwell, drugfree or addicted, has equal rights of dignified access to healthcare. Without public engagement in DHB elections, the community risks having candidates elected that also don't understand their role through a preventative public health framework or human rights lens. The United Community Action Network (UCAN) developed a human rights framework and Health Charter for people driven into poverty by the costs of staying well in NZ. The framework outlines 6 social determinants of health needing protection through policy, to ensure all enjoy their rights to health. UCAN and the Public Health Association of New Zealand (PHA) partnered to raise public and the candidates' awareness during 2019 elections, of these social determinants causing inequity in health outcomes. A series of short explainer-videos were created for sharing through social media during the election build-up period, helping to promote PHA Branches' public Meet the Candidates events. Post-election, a longer film was produced to send to the elected DHB members. Our theory of change centred on spotlighting health inequity for voters, so that they would elect DHB members who had the greatest understanding and commitment to addressing this issue. With shareable videos we aimed to attract audience, raise awareness and debate the policy solutions to health inequity with candidates, enabling more informed choice amongst the voting public. Post-election, we maintain supportive relationships with the elected DHB members that promised their commitment to our Health Charter during their campaigns. Key messages Using videos and social media, local body elections provide an opportunity to promote everyone’s right to affordable healthcare, supporting and informing voter decision-making. UCAN's Health Charter is an advocacy resource for raising awareness of the social determinants of health inequity and poverty for people with mental illness, addiction and disability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Bove ◽  
Riccardo Di Leo

AbstractThroughout the coronavirus outbreak, politicians and commentators have often adopted a war-like rhetoric, invoking a language more often associated to terrorist violence, rather than epidemics. Although COVID-19 represents primarily a public health emergency, not inflicted by human agency, there are similarities in the type and scope of regulations governments have introduced to tackle the virus and to respond to terrorist attacks. In this article, we first ask what we can learn from the extant studies on the attitudinal and emotional consequences of terrorism, relating it to recent research on public opinions in the wake of COVID-19, in order to better understand and predict how the pandemic will influence public sentiments. We then analyze how attitudes can shift when a critical event not only threatens the population of a country as a whole, but directly affects its political leader. Leveraging recently released survey data, we show how the announcement of Angela Merkel’s quarantine significantly dampened the trust in and the credibility of her government, although this effect was short-lived.


2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-31
Author(s):  
Massimo Candela ◽  
Antonio Prado

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments introduced several social restrictions. As of 18 March 2020, more than 250 million people were in lockdown in Europe. This drastically increased the number of online activities. Due to this unprecedented situation, some concerns arose about the suitability of the Internet network to sustain the increased usage. Italy was severely hit by the first wave of the pandemic and various regions underwent a lockdown before the main country-wide one. The Italian network operators started sharing information about improvements carried out on the network and new measures adopted to support the increase in Internet usage. In this report, by means of a questionnaire, we collect information and provide a quantitative overview of the actions undertaken by network operators in Italy. The attitude of Italian operators was synergic and proactive in supporting the changed market conditions caused by the public health emergency.


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