scholarly journals Evolving public behavior and attitudes towards COVID-19 and face masks in Taiwan: A social media study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0251845
Author(s):  
Chih-Yu Chin ◽  
Chang-Pan Liu ◽  
Cheng-Lung Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Study ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Relevant Variables ◽  
Public Behavior ◽  
The Government

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan demonstrated resilience at the initial stage of epidemic prevention, and effectively slowed down its spread. This study aims to document public epidemic awareness of COVID-19 in Taiwan through collecting social media- and Internet-based data, and provide valuable experience of Taiwan’s response to COVID-19, involving citizens, news media, and the government, to aid the public in overcoming COVID-19, or infectious diseases that may emerge in the future. The volume of Google searches related to COVID-19 and face masks was regarded as an indicator of public epidemic awareness in the study. A time-series analysis was used to explore the relationships among public epidemic awareness and other COVID-19 relevant variables, which were collected based on big data analysis. Additionally, the content analysis was adopted to analyze the transmission of different types of fear information related to COVID-19 and their effects on the public. Our results indicate that public epidemic awareness was significantly correlated with the number of confirmed cases in Taiwan and the number of news reports on COVID-19 (correlation coefficient: .33–.56). Additionally, the findings from the content analysis suggested that the fear of the loss of control best explains why panic behavior occurs among the public. When confronting the highly infectious COVID-19, public epidemic awareness is vital. While fear is an inevitable result when an emerging infectious disease occurs, the government can convert resistance into assistance by understanding why fear arises and which fear factors cause excessive public panic. Moreover, in the digitalization era, online and social media activities could reflect public epidemic awareness that can e harnessed for epidemic control.

scholarly journals Why do you wear a face mask? Taiwanese public epidemic awareness of COVID-19 from social media behavior

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Yu Chin ◽  
Chang-Pan Liu ◽  
Cheng-Lung Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Search Query ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
The Government ◽  
Google Search

Abstract BackgroundFacing the COVID-19 epidemic, Taiwan has demonstrated resilience at the initial stage of epidemic prevention and effectively slowed down its spread. This study aims to capture public epidemic awareness toward the COVID-19 through collecting social media- and Internet-based data and elaborate on how the public epidemic awareness rose and played a role in the epidemic prevention in Taiwan during the initial course of COVID-19 spread.MethodsUsing the Google search query volume of COVID-19 and face mask as indicators of public epidemic awareness, we collected the volume of news reports and the mentions on social media about COVID-19 and face masks between December 31, 2019, and February 29, 2020, through big data analysis and sorted the daily total confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and in Taiwan as well as critical mask-related measures implemented by the Taiwanese government to plot the trends in this information and conduct correlation analysis. Additionally, the content analysis was adopted to analyze the transmission of different types of fear information of COVID-19 between December 31, 2019, and March 29, 2020, and their effects on the public.ResultsThe Google search query volume of COVID-19 and face mask was significantly correlated with the number of confirmed cases in Taiwan, the number of news reports on COVID-19 (correlation coefficient: .74–.90). Since the first confirmed cases of COVID-19, public epidemic awareness has increased rapidly, prompting the government to formulate relevant emergency measures. Additionally, the findings from content analysis suggested that the fear of the loss of control best explains why panic behavior occurs in public.ConclusionsConfronting the highly infectious COVID-19, public epidemic awareness is vital. While fear is an inevitable product when an emerging infectious disease occurs, the government can convert resistance into assistance by understanding why fear arises and which fear factors cause excessive panic in public. Moreover, online social media promptly reflect public epidemic awareness, which can be used as a reference for epidemic prevention; this urges the government to deal with the crisis in the form of public opinion.

scholarly journals Corpus-based Comparative Study of Online News Reporting of the COVID-19 Outbreak in the Philippines and Malaysia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gio Eiron Villanueva
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Early Period ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Online News ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Government

When faced with new and threatening events like a global health crisis, the public tends to draw inferences from news media to make sense of the uncertainties of the situation. This study explores how online news media in the Philippines and Malaysia depicted the outbreak of COVID-19 during the early period of its spread. The study analyzes the discourse around the outbreak based on a large corpus of Facebook news posts between January and March 2020. Using a corpus-based approach called Keyness Analysis, salient themes & topics, and framings around the disease were identified and interpreted. The results show the differences in the reporting of the outbreak between the two countries. News reports in the Philippines depicted the disease in an enigmatic lens which explains the alarmist angle of news reports and the reassuring tone of the government, versus the war framing of Malaysian news that depicted the disease as an enemy to be fought and defeated. In reporting about the bid to contain the spread of the virus, Philippine news reports dealt mostly with the restrictions and regulations of movement while the Malaysian news covered more issues on personal hygiene and safety protocols. Lastly, concerns for Filipino seafarers and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) that needs to be repatriated was a recurring theme in Philippine news reports regarding COVID-19, while concerns for the economy was prominent in the Malaysian news reports. The study therefore shows that the depiction of COVID-19 in Malaysia and the Philippines are shaped by each country’s present social and political conditions.

scholarly journals Content Analysis of Social Media: Public and Government Response to COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Gugun Geusan Akbar ◽  
Dede Kurniadi ◽  
Nita Nurliawati
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Complete Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Government Response ◽  
Response Data ◽  
The Government ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Support Decision Making

Nowadays, the use of social media to analyze disaster responses has become important. However, its application to support decision-making by the Government during disasters still present significant challenges. This article offers a complete analysis of the response of the public and the Government in dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemics in Indonesia. The content analysis uses to analyze the tweet post on Twitter to determine the public and government response. Data was collected from public and government tweets on Twitter and producing 11,578 community tweets from the public and 958 tweets from the government account. This data was collected from 2nd March until 15th April 2020. Public comments are sorted into six categories of comments, that is fate, logic, government mention, worry, scientist, and impression, while sentiments are classified as positive, negative, and neutral. Government comments are sorted into eight categories, namely information, education, operating, warnings, resources provision, volunteer recruitment, and rumors management. The results showed that the public encourages and supports the Government to cope with a pandemic think rationally and logically in dealing with this Pandemic. In addition, the study indicates that the Government has not used social media as a medium for communicating with the public. The quality of government response is not good, especially in the categories of information on operations, warnings, resources provision, recruitment of volunteers, and rumors management. The implication of this study suggests how the data might be useful for the Government in delivering information during the Pandemic.

scholarly journals Penyalahgunaan Media Sosial Sebagai Alat Propaganda

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-76
Author(s):  
Rety Palupi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political World ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government

Changes in the communication of information continue to occur along with the advancement of technology in the digital era. Nowadays everyone can work as a journalist even though he or she has never learned the basics of journalism. The public also frequently receive information or news that raise the eyebrows — ranging from disaster threats to information about the political world. The finding of this research is that often information that circulates in the hands of Warganet is a hoax and even hate speech, despite the government efforts to reduce the spread of hoax and hate speech. With this paper, the author aims at disclosing the propaganda elements in the hoax and hate speech in the social media as in the digital era the social media is the most vulnerable in spreading of hoax news and hate speech. By utilising qualitative content analysis, the author discusses five hoax news and hate speeches which are dissected using nine propaganda practices. The conclusion obtained by the author is that the hoax news and hate speech comprise of elements of exaggeration, rhetoric, recognition and influence on a variety of parties, as well as prejudices supplemented by emotions. 

scholarly journals Content Analysis of the Controversy Over the Communication of Government Policies in Handling Covid-19 in Online Media

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panji Dwi Ashrianto ◽  
Edwi Arief Sosiawan
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Space ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Good Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) has hit almost all countries in the world. Cases of Covid-19 sufferers continue to grow. The impacts are also multidimensional, from economic to social. It is not easy for governments to deal with this global spreading pandemic. During the Covid-19 epidemic, controversy arose in the public space regarding government discourse and policies in dealing with Corona and its effects. These various controversies occurred due to the inadequate public understanding of the policies for handling Covid 19. The government is considered stuttering in responding to the situation and shows a failure to deliver good communication to the public. The research problem's formulation is: What is the content of controversy and polemic over government policies in handling COVID-19 from March 2020 to May 2020 in online media. The research method used is quantitative with a content analysis approach. There are three policy contents analyzed, which are sourced from the three news media portals most accessed in Indonesia based on the Alexa website ranking. As a result, there are three main conclusions in this study. First, in communicating government policies, the president is still at the forefront of delivering systems. Second, the guidelines issued by the government are mostly macro policies dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. Third, the impact resulting from government policies' communication on handling the Covid-19 epidemic has caused chiefly controversy.

scholarly journals 9 Performance of Indonesian Ministry of Health in Overcoming Hoax About Vaccination Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 151
Author(s):  
Daniel Susilo ◽  
Teguh Dwi Putranto ◽  
Charles Julian Santos Navarro
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Vaccination Program ◽  
Quality And Safety ◽  
Ministry Of Health ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Media Hoax ◽  
Health Experts

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2021 is still a “big disaster” for Indonesia. The public is increasingly confused about the Government’s Vaccination program in reducing the number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. The development of Vaccine-related hoaxes such as safe or not, halal or not, has also become a new job faced by the Government, especially the Ministry of Health. This study aims to determine the Indonesian Ministry of Health’s performance in overcoming hoaxes against Vaccinations during the Covid-19 pandemic. The method used in this research is Krippendorff content analysis on Instagram posts of the Ministry of Health @kemenkes_ri during the period 1 January 2021 to 29 January 2021. The conclusion obtained in this study is that the Ministry of Health’s efforts in dealing with hoaxes circulating in the community regarding the Covid-19 Vaccination are by presenting health experts in providing information related to the Covid-19 Vaccine. The information conveyed is related to the quality and safety of Vaccines, to the Vaccine development process.Keywords: Performance, social media, hoax, vaccination, COVID-19 ABSTRAKPandemi penyakit coronavirus (COVID-19) di awal tahun 2021 masih menjadi “bencana besar” bagi Indonesia. Masyarakat semakin bingung dengan program vaksinasi yang dilakukan Pemerintah dalam menekan angka kasus COVID-19 di Indonesia. Berkembangnya hoaks terkait vaksin seperti aman atau tidak, halal atau tidak, juga menjadi pekerjaan baru yang dihadapi Pemerintah, khususnya Kementerian Kesehatan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui kinerja Kementerian Kesehatan RI dalam mengatasi hoaks terhadap vaksinasi selama pandemi Covid-19. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah analisis konten Krippendorff pada postingan Instagram Kementerian Kesehatan @kemenkes_ri selama periode 1 Januari 2021 hingga 29 Januari 2021. Kesimpulan yang diperoleh dalam penelitian ini adalah bahwa upaya yang dilakukan oleh Kementerian Kesehatan dalam menghadapi hoaks yang beredar di masyarakat terkait vaksinasi Covid-19 adalah dengan menghadirkan pakar kesehatan dalam memberikan informasi terkait vaksin Covid-19. Informasi yang disampaikan terkait dengan kualitas dan keamanan vaksin, hingga proses pengembangan vaksin. Kata Kunci: Kinerja, media sosial, hoaks, vaksinasi, COVID-19

scholarly journals Temporal and textual analysis of social media on collective discourses during the Zika virus pandemic

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
May Oo Lwin ◽  
Jiahui Lu ◽  
Anita Sheldenkar ◽  
Ysa Marie Cayabyab ◽  
Zi Han Yee Andrew ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Health Event ◽  
The Government

Abstract Background While existing studies have investigated the role of social media on health-related communication, little is known about the potential differences between different users groups on different social media platforms in responses to a health event. This study sets out to explore the online discourse of governmental authorities and the public in Singapore during the recent Zika pandemic in 2016. Methods Social media data were extracted from Facebook and Twitter using retroactive keyword sourcing of the word “Zika” to search for posts and a location filter of “Singapore”. Government posts, public posts, and replies to these original posts were included in the temporal and textual analysis. Results Overall, Facebook contained more government and individual content whereas Twitter had more content from news media accounts. Though the relative volume of Zika content from different data sources paralleled the peaks and troughs of Zika activities across time, discourses from different data sources differed in their temporal patterns, such that the public discourse died down faster than the government discourse after the outbreak was declared. In addition, the content of discourses differed among data sources. While government discourse included factual information of the disease, public discourse contained more elements of care such as worry about the risks to pregnant women, and elements of community such as well-wishes to each other. Conclusions Our study demonstrates the temporal and content differences between user groups and social media platforms in social media conversations during the Zika pandemic. It suggests that future research should examine the collective discourse of a health event by investigating social media discourses within varied sources rather than focusing on a singular social media platform and by one particular type of user.

scholarly journals Temporal and textual analysis of social media on collective discourses during the Zika virus pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
May Oo Lwin ◽  
Jiahui Lu ◽  
Anita Sheldenkar ◽  
Ysa Marie Cayabyab ◽  
Andrew Yee Zi Han ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Health Event ◽  
The Government

Abstract Background: While existing studies have investigated the role of social media on health-related communication, little is known about the potential differences between different users groups on different social media platforms in responses to a health event. This study sets out to explore the online discourse of governmental authorities and the public in Singapore during the recent Zika pandemic in 2016. Methods: Social media data were extracted from Facebook and Twitter using retroactive keyword sourcing of the word “Zika” to search for posts and a location filter of “Singapore”. Government posts, public posts, and replies to these original posts were included in the temporal and textual analysis. Results: Overall, Facebook contained more government and individual content whereas Twitter had more content from news media accounts. Though the relative volume of Zika content from different data sources paralleled the peaks and troughs of Zika activities across time, discourses from different data sources differed in their temporal patterns, such that the public discourse died down faster than the government discourse after the outbreak was declared. In addition, the content of discourses differed among data sources. While government discourse included factual information of the disease, public discourse contained more elements of care such as worry about the risks to pregnant women, and elements of community such as well-wishes to each other. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the temporal and content differences between user groups and social media platforms in social media conversations during the Zika pandemic. It suggests that future research should examine the collective discourse of a health event by investigating social media discourses within varied sources rather than focusing on a singular social media platform and by one particular type of users.

scholarly journals Social Media and Local Government in Indonesia: Adoption, Use and Stakeholder Engagement

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Anang Dwi Santoso ◽  
Dhia Rinjany ◽  
Oemar Madri Bafadhal
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Stakeholder Engagement ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
The Public ◽  
Alternative Method ◽  
Public Behavior ◽  
The Government

While social media has been extensively adopted by local governments, not all of its benefits have been achieved. One reason is that local government-owned social media is less appealing. This research argues that to increase public involvement in social media, the government needs to understand public behavior on social media by exploring public preferences on the content and media produced. This research applies a Stakeholder Engagement Index (SEI) to study public behavior on social media. The results of the study demonstrate that although content containing information about government activities has been produced, it has a low engagement level. Moreover, people prefer content with photos and videos, which apparently dominate local government posts and tweets. This research academically confirms that SEI is an alternative method for understanding public behavior on social media and practically presents choices of content categories preferred by the public.

How to Tell the Truth without Outraging the Press?

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Li Xiguang
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese News Media

The commercialization of meclia in China has cultivated a new journalism business model characterized with scandalization, sensationalization, exaggeration, oversimplification, highly opinionated news stories, one-sidedly reporting, fabrication and hate reporting, which have clone more harm than good to the public affairs. Today the Chinese journalists are more prey to the manipu/ation of the emotions of the audiences than being a faithful messenger for the public. Une/er such a media environment, in case of news events, particularly, during crisis, it is not the media being scared by the government. but the media itself is scaring the government into silence. The Chinese news media have grown so negative and so cynica/ that it has produced growing popular clistrust of the government and the government officials. Entering a freer but fearful commercially mediated society, the Chinese government is totally tmprepared in engaging the Chinese press effectively and has lost its ability for setting public agenda and shaping public opinions. 

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