scholarly journals Leveraging media informatics for the surveillance and understanding of disease outbreaks

2019 ◽  
Vol 115 (3/4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bankole Falade

Syndromic disease surveillance mechanisms can be enhanced by incorporating mass media informatics for disease discourse and aberration detection and social psychology for understanding risk perceptions and the drivers of uptake and resistance. Using computerised text analysis, the coverage of the outbreak of Zika virus in Brazil in 2017/2018 in four newspapers – O Estado, O Globo, the Times of London and the New York Times – was examined and patterns were compared with Google Trends. Quantitative indicators showed waves of attention to Zika peaked in the same period but local newspapers, O Estado and O Globo, indicated lower levels of anxiety in the run up to the Olympics when compared with foreign media. The unusual surge in attention to dengue in early 2015 was an early indication to sound the alarm for extensive clinical investigations. This, together with the flagging of Zika by O Globo almost a year before the global alarm, indicates the suitability of this method for surveillance and detection of aberrations. Media attention waves are also significantly associated with Google Trends, indicating empirical equivalence. Qualitative indicators show the extra motivation over Google, World Wide Web or Twitter searches by highlighting public perceptions. Findings show the absence of a stable body of scientific knowledge at the outbreak and an ensuing crisis of understanding. Local concerns were about the economic crisis, religious beliefs, poverty and crime – all inhibitors to containment – while the global alarm was amplified by risk to tourists and athletes, and political disputes mixed with religious beliefs. Significance: This study contributes to research on the use of longitudinal media data as surrogate sources for syndromic disease surveillance. Mass media informatics provide empirical equivalence to Google Trends. Clinical and non-clinical factors contributed to public anxiety over disease epidemics. Lack of clinical knowledge at the onset of the crisis contributed to anxiety among scientists and the public.

Author(s):  
N.S. Pivovarova

This paper investigates the features of the US mass media approaches in creating the image of Hugo Chavez on the eve of the Venezuela 1998 Presidential Elections. The paper studies the historical context, which influenced the creation of Chavez's image. The socio-economic and political development of Venezuela in those days is analyzed. The key traits of Chavez’s image highlighted during the period under study, as well as the emotional background of the publications, are analyzed. Although both the domestic and foreign historiography has paid a most sufficient attention to the history of Venezuela, the biography and political activity of Hugo Chavez, his image as a presidential candidate in the 1998 Venezuela elections remains unexplored. This work aims to fill this gap. The paper systematically examines the materials of the three major US newspapers, namely, the “New York Times”, the “Wall Street Journal”, and the “Los Angeles Times”, published from July to December, 1998. The established methodologies of document analysis and quantitative content analysis are applied. The study leads to the conclusion that the USA mass media created a negative image of Hugo Chavez during the pre-election period, implementing understatements and a negative emotional background in their publications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-124
Author(s):  
Aji Susanto Anom Purnomo ◽  
Novan Jemmi Andrea ◽  
Monica Revias Purwa Kusuma

2020 is the year when the world is faced with a health crisis, namely the Covid-19 pandemic or also known as the Corona Virus. All aspects of life are affected by this crisis, the joints of humanity are faced with limitations. The mass media are intensively reporting various incidents regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. The stories are often accompanied by journalistic photos. One of the functions of photojournalism is to strengthen the story of what the media wants to convey. Journalistic photos during this pandemic usually feature scenes from medical activities, government policies and large narratives that are cold on empathetic human relations. However, different from most photojournalism in most mass media, The New York Times publishes "Still Lives" photography projects that are done by its photographers. The project presents a different narrative from this time of the pandemic. The “Still Lives” photography project is important because it presents journalistic photos that tell a domestic narrative that is close to the sides of universal humanity, namely the stories of the photographers' homes and families. This study aims to describe and interpret the “Still Lives” photography project as an alternative in creating a different narrative from photojournalism during the pandemic. This study used a descriptive qualitative research method based on phenomenology with Roland Barthes' main theory of semiotics and supported by journalistic photography theory and representation theory. The research results obtained a complete explanation and meaning of the “Still Lives” Project from The New York Times. The project according to the theory of photo journalistic is photo story based on personal experiences. From the analysis through the theory of semiotics from Roland Barthes and representation theory successfully obtained a result that basically projects “Still Lives” can be understood as a representation of the universal experience and feeling by mankind. Project “Still Lives” provides the representation of covid-19 pandemic through the mass media journalistic that show an alternative offer to journalistic practice to use lyrical narratives and personal experience in the story and more empathy in the mass publication of pandemic covid-19.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Haynes ◽  
Chetan Tiwari

Objectives: To develop new methods to address problems associated with use of traditional measures of disease surveillance, including prevalence and positivity rates. Methods: We use data from the public New York Times Github repository to develop a space-time classification index of COVID-19 hotspots. The Local Indicator of Spatial Association (LISA) statistic is applied to identify daily clusters of COVID-19 cases, from July 4th to July 19th. Results: The classification index is a spatial and temporal assessment tool that seeks to incorporate temporal trends of the clusters that are "high-high" and "high-low". Two classifications support the index: severity and temporal duration. We define severity as the number of times a county is statistically significant and temporal duration captures the number of consecutive days a county is a hotspot. Conclusions: The space-time classification index provides a statistically robust measure of the spatial patterns of COVID-19 hotspots. Spatial information is not captured through measures like the positivity rate, which merely divides the number of cases by tests conducted. The index proposed in this paper can guide intervention efforts by classifying counties with six-levels of importance.


2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-108
Author(s):  
Ravi Perry

Recent research documents how party rules, election reforms, and the growth of primaries and caucuses have greatly changed the presidential nomination process. Acknowledging that most Americans get their information about presidential candidates through the news and that mass media have played a significant role in introducing candidates to potential voters, I conduct an longitudinal content analysis of the New York Times articles to ethnographically explain how language, article placement and content in ‘America's Paper’ has significantly impacted the framing of black presidential candidates' pre-primary presidential campaigns. In particular, the data reveal how the newspaper's coverage of the candidates appears to vary based on perceived viability and as willingness to vote for a black president increases.


2008 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel Hilliker

One source people can rely on for clues on how to grieve a loss is through accounts of such experiences reported in the mass media. This research examines how grief has been reported at one newspaper of record for the U.S.: The New York Times. Using theories of social construction and the sick role, this exploratory study attempts to observe whether grieving is portrayed by media as a social problem, particularly as a health or medical issue which can be treated and cured, and also discusses those who are not identified in the mourner role in newspaper reports.


1986 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 389-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN J. GUZEWICH ◽  
DALE L. MORSE

Shellfish have been identified as vehicles of foodborne enteric disease in the United States since the first part of the twentieth century. Between 1900 and 1983, 198 incidents or outbreaks involving 8,659 cases were reported nationally. In New York State, reports of shellfishborne gastroenteritis and/or hepatitis A began to increase in 1981, when one outbreak involving 234 cases of gastroenteritis was reported. In subsequent years, the following were reported: 1982, 103 outbreaks of gastroenteritis involving 1,017 cases and 10 cases of hepatitis A; 1983, 33 outbreaks of gastroenteritis involving 504 cases; 1984, 15 gastroenteritis outbreaks and 256 cases; and the first five months of 1985, 10 outbreaks of gastroenteritis involving 98 cases. States, countries or provinces identified as sources of shellfish implicated in these outbreaks included: New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, England North Carolina and Prince Edward Island. The source investigations were seriously impaired by numerous inadequacies in current shellfish-tagging regulations and the manner in which these are enforced. Possible solutions to prevent further shellfishborne disease outbreaks include: (a) improve shellfishborne disease surveillance and reporting; (b) embargo shellfish sold by shippers implicated in disease outbreaks; (c) adopt strict state and federal laws to control the sanitary quality of all shellfish; (d) accomplish greater participation in the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference; (e) provide an adequate number of enforcement officers; (f) develop a microbiologic growing water and/or product standard that assures viral as well as bacteriologic safety; (g) properly classify shellfish-harvesting waters; (h) mandate a manifest-type tagging system; (i) strictly enforce wholesale and retail shellfish-tagging requirements; (j) require depuration of all shellfish sold; and (k) advise the public against the consumption of raw or partially cooked shellfish. If these or other approaches fail to prevent morbidity, a ban on the sale of raw shellfish may be the only solution.


Litera ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 48-54
Author(s):  
Olesya Yur'evna Polonskaya

This article is dedicated to examination of metaphorical peculiarities of representation of migration in the U. S. press. The object of this research is the metaphorical perception of migrants and migration in mass media language of the United States. The subject is the metaphorical models structuring the concept sphere of “migration” in mass media language of the United States. The goal of this work consists in analysis of the peculiarities of metaphorical modeling of migration in the U. S. political media discourse. The relevance is defined by insufficient coverage of metaphorical perception of the migration processes by modern mass media of the United States. The research is based on the cognitive approach, according to which metaphor is a fundamental phenomenon in perception of the surrounding environment. Study of the linguistic material and description of metaphorical model allowed determining the attitude towards migrants at the current stage of development of the U. S. society. The analysis of conceptual metaphors was conducted via continuous sampling from digital versions of the well-known newspapers “The New York Times”, “USA Today” and “The Wall Street Journal”. The author highlights the three main groups of metaphors: signifying natural phenomena and disasters; military; and goods-commodity.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Yuan ◽  
Guangrui Huang ◽  
Haixu Jiang ◽  
Wenbin Liu ◽  
Ting Wang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Norovirus is a contagious disease leading to vomiting and diarrhea. The transmission of norovirus spreads quickly and easily in various ways. Because effective methods to prevent or treat norovirus have not been discovered, it is important to rapidly recognize and report norovirus outbreaks in the early phase. Internet search has been a useful method for people to access information immediately. With the precise record of Internet search trends, Internet search has been a useful tool to manifest infectious disease outbreaks. OBJECTIVE In this study, we tried to discover the correlation between Internet search terms and norovirus infection. METHODS The Internet search trend data of norovirus were obtained from Google Trends. We used cross-correlation analysis to discover the temporal correlation between norovirus and other terms. We also used multiple linear regression with the stepwise method to recognize the most important predictors of Internet search trends and norovirus. In addition, we evaluated the temporal correlation between actual norovirus cases and Internet search terms in New York, California, and USA. RESULTS Some Google search terms such as gastroenteritis, vomiting, and watery diarrhea were coincided with norovirus Google Trends. Some Google search terms such as contagious, Norwalk virus, travel presented earlier than norovirus Google Trends. Some Google search terms such as dehydration, bar, and restaurant presented several months later than norovirus Google Trends. We found that the symptoms of gastroenteritis, including vomiting and watery diarrhea, were important factors that were significantly correlated with norovirus Google Trends. In actual norovirus cases of New York, California, and USA, some Google search terms presented coincided, earlier, or later than actual norovirus cases. CONCLUSIONS Our study provides novel strategy-based Internet search evidence regarding the epidemiology of norovirus.


2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
ELENA V. ILOVA ◽  
◽  
ELENA N. GALICHKINA ◽  
RUFINA ZH. IZMAILOVA ◽  
◽  
...  

The article describes distinctive features of a film review as a speech genre which is now one of the most popular genres of the mass media net discourse. The article proves its intertextual character and analyses its lexical and semantic features. Film reviews taken from the following sources: sites of cinema goers: www.imdb.com, www.empireonline.com, www.pluggedin.com ; official sites of film critics (e.g. R. Ebert) https://www.rogerebert.com; official sites of the newspapers: The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/reviews/movies, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film+tone/reviews and other sites: https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=movie-review, https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/. The material for analysis comprises about 100 film reviews released in 2020. The reviews are in open access in the Internet. The volume of the analysed material is about 200 pages. The method used to achieve the main objective is interpretation analysis of film reviews. As a result of the theoretical material analysis main directions in the genre research were specified; key distinctive features of a film review were studied. The actuality of the research is determined by the rising interest to net mass media discourse genres. The main objective is to elicit and describe lexical and semantic features of film reviews as a speech genre. The conducted research made it possible to prove the interdiscoursive and poly-discoursive nature of the genre in question and to systematize its lexical and semantic features. The analysis disclosed that intertextuality of a film review is actualized in the interaction of three types of discourse: that of the critic, that of the film and that of other people. Poly-discoursive nature of a film review is expressed through the combination of publicistic, literary and scientific styles features. Another important characteristic is evaluativity represented in emotionally coloured vocabulary. Among other lexical and semantic features are the following: usage of non-specific terms, cliches, rhetorical questions with precedent names, intertextual inserting, various stylistic devices, among which epithets and metaphors are most often used. It’s been observed that a film review is filled with bookish vocabulary as well as stylistically low words and expressions.


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