scholarly journals Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and TikTok: a proposal for health authorities to integrate popular social media platforms in contingency planning amid a global pandemic outbreak

2020 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzieh Eghtesadi ◽  
Adrian Florea
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Social Media Platforms

scholarly journals COVID-19 Social Media Information and Misinformation: a Geospatial Analysis of Inter-regional Tweet Disparities in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richmond Takyi Hinneh ◽  
Alex Barimah Owusu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
False Information ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Spatial Differences ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Precautionary Measures

Abstract BackgroundIn an era of the global pandemic and social media dominance, trying to control the narrative on COVID-19 has been a challenging task for most governments particularly with news about the disease on various social media platforms. There have even been instances where people have sent false information about the number of confirmed cases, precautionary measures, drugs that boost the immune system which can threaten the lives of some users who are accessing this false information and misconceptions.Method This study analyzed spatial differences in Twitter misinformation on COVID-19 across 16 regions of Ghana by scraping 1,167 tweets from Twitter using API access. A total of 514 tweets were analyzed. The data were categorized into three namely; accurate information, misinformation, and other information. ResultsThe study results show that 72% of the tweets were accurate, 14% were misinformation and 14% represented other information. Among the regions, Greater Accra had the highest number of accurate information (45 tweets), and the Upper West Region recording the highest number of misinformation (12 tweets).ConclusionSpatial monitoring and management of information dissemination are useful for target setting and achievement of direct results in terms of diffusing misinformation and propagating accurate information. We, therefore, recommend official usage of Twitter for COVID-19 information dissemination as this usage will help offset possible misinformation from unformed individuals.

scholarly journals “CLIMATE JUSTICE IS RACIAL JUSTICE”: THE YOUTH CLIMATE MOVEMENT AND INTERSECTIONAL MEDIA ORGANIZING IN AN ALGORITHMIC SOCIETY

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Lee
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Youth Movement ◽  
Youth Movements ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Hybrid Organizing ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the world saw unprecedented levels of youth mobilization. From Black Lives Matter to March for Our Lives to the Youth Climate Strikes, the past decade saw young people leveraging social media to build movements around the world. Existing studies have shown how young people use social media to build movements in liberal democracies under the conditions of free assembly and association. However, since the global pandemic hit, young people (and others) have had to face various constraints to street mobilization. During the pandemic, as youth movements come to depend heavily on digital tools for organizing, social media platforms and algorithms may further complicate the process by which young people’s exercise political power. Using the broader youth climate movement as a case study, I examine how youth movements shift their tactics in response to the pandemic, and what the implications of shifting to the digital space are for the youth climate movement. This study draws on in-depth interviews with youth climate activists, along with digital ethnography and surveys, conducted between 2019 and 2021. Findings show that young climate organizers galvanized social media to shift to remote and hybrid organizing tactics. At the same time, inequalities introduced by social media platforms and algorithms became more acute for the youth movement.

Social Media for Health Communication

2014 ◽  
pp. 237-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Cioni ◽  
Alessandro Lovari
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Health Organizations ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Organizations ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Local Health Authorities

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the current issues and the challenging process of the adoption of social media by Italian local health authorities (ASL). After a literature review of the role of social media for health organizations, the authors focus their attention on how social network sites are modifying health communication and relations with citizens in Italy. They conduct an exploratory study articulated in three stages: after mapping the presence of local health authorities on the most popular social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), they carry out a content analysis to describe the prevalent kinds of messages published in the official Facebook timelines; in the third phase, using several interviews with healthcare directors and communications managers, the authors investigate implementation issues, managerial implications, and constraints that influence proper use of these participative platforms by Italian public health organizations. Limitations and further steps of the research are discussed.

COVID-19 in Mexico: Perception and knowledge of the pandemic in the Mexican population through the application of online surveys. (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Ernesto Villarreal-Benavides.
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Preventive Measure ◽  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Online Surveys ◽  
Hygiene Practices ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
The Face ◽  
Social Media Platforms

BACKGROUND COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on Mexican society. People have unique perceptions and reactions to an event of such magnitude. A practical way to measure this impact it is by means of perception, hence applying online surveys, through social media platforms to ensure higher response rates and results in a fast pace. OBJECTIVE Inquire about knowledge and perception in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic in Mexico. METHODS This is a transversal, descriptive study. The survey included questions about: general data, knowledge about the virus, adaptations in job, economy, and health basis and new hygiene practices and implementations, all since the beginning of the pandemics. The survey included a section with top news headlines images about Covid-19 in Mexico for people to relate the first feeling the image caused in them. The survey was conducted through social media platforms like Facebook© and WhatsApp© during the week of April 5th through 9th 2020, week that corresponded to phase 2 of the epidemic in Mexico. The participants were informed of the nature of this study and that their participation is voluntary, anonymous and confidential. A percentage of all results were determined. RESULTS 2798 responses were analyzed. 99.9% of the participants approved the consent and answered the survey. The average profile of the citizen who answered this survey were between the age group of 21-40 years (51%), in relation to gender, mostly females (81%) Education up to bachelor's degree (80%) Residency, Nuevo León, México (42%), occupation: Other than health field related (47%), Income: $20,001- $50,000 Mexican pesos (18%), have health service (64%), have children (73%) of which are under 12 years old (43%). Almost 100% recognized the transmission of coronavirus and the symptoms of COVID-19. 99% of the surveyed, stated that hand washing implement, outcome as main preventive measure of transmission. 74.9% categorized themselves as having an overall “good” health, nonetheless 50% suffer from chronic diseases, making hypertension and obesity (22%) the most frequent combination of ailment. About lockdown and employment 71% were complying with the lockdown measures: 30% full salary and 1% was fired. 28% of the population surveyed prefers social media to update information and 72% recognizes worrisome is the predominant mood. The major reactions to the images shown were: worry and anger. Concern was expressed about the economy of the country and the world at the end of the pandemic in a 97% of the surveyed. CONCLUSIONS Social media is a great device for massive data diffusion, between different targeted populations. Quick on-line surveys could be an important tool to track knowledge and perceptions among the population, during large events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The results presented in this article could help society in general, as well as health authorities, medical personnel, Government and media, to learn about the population's perceptions and needs in such an event like this pandemic, therefore take preventive measures and, above all, support the mental health of the population’s topic.

scholarly journals The social life of COVID-19: Early insights from social media monitoring data collected in Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 3056-3065
Author(s):  
Joanna Burzyńska ◽  
Anna Bartosiewicz ◽  
Magdalena Rękas
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Social Media Monitoring ◽  
Media Monitoring ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Online Conversation ◽  
Media Data

Research has revealed that social media data may be promising in many health threats and help to understand how people respond to them. As the outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global pandemic, a real-time social media monitoring is needed to know the scale of this phenomenon. We have reported the frequency, reach and impact of online mentions about the COVID-19 illness taken from social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, blogs, forums, and news portals to highlight and better understand the scope of coronavirus discussion in Poland. We used SentiOne social listening tool to gather the data and perform the monitoring between 24 February 2020 to 25 March 2020. We found a total of 1,415,750 mentions related to COVID-19 which gives the average 47,192 mentions per day. 95.36% (1,350,059) of mentions were people’s updates and expressions, 4.64% (65,691) mentions were articles from news portals and social media. Males have dominated the online conversation about COVID-19 (65.32% vs 34.68% females). At the same time, women were more likely to discuss the topic on social media platforms such as: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We concluded with theoretical and practical implications.

scholarly journals PUBLIC REACTION TO COVID-19 ON TWITTER: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS

2020 ◽  
pp. 349-358
Author(s):  
Akif Mustafa ◽  
Imaduddin Ansari ◽  
Subham Kumar Mohanta ◽  
Shalem Balla
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The Public ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Public Reaction

Emergency situations typically lead to a plethora of public attention on social media platforms like ‘Twitter’. Twitter provides a unique opportunity for public health researchers to analyze untampered information shared during a disease outbreak. Considering the ongoing public health emergency, we conducted a study investigating the public reaction to COVID-19 pandemic around the world using in-depth thematic analysis of Twitter data. A dataset of 212846 tweets was retrieved over a period of seven days (from April 13, 2020, to April 19, 2020) via Twitter Application Programme Interface (API). The following five keywords were used to collect the tweets: “coronavirus”, “covid-19”, “corona”, “covid”, “covid19”. After data filtering and cleaning 6348 tweets were randomly selected for in-depth thematic analysis. Thematic analysis was done manually using a two-level coding guide. A total of six main themes emerged from the analysis: ‘sentiments and feelings’, ‘Information’, ‘General Discussion’, ‘Politics’, ‘Food’, and ‘Sarcasm or humor’. The aforementioned themes were divided into 26 sub-themes. The results of the thematic analysis show that 30.1% of the tweets were regarding ‘sentiments and feelings’, 15.6% were regarding ‘politics’, and 6.5% were related to ‘sarcasm or humor’. The present study is the first study that has analyzed the public response to COVID-19 on Twitter. The study demonstrates that social media platforms (like Twitter) can be used to conduct infodemiological studies related to public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that the results of this study will be of potential interest to policymakers, health authorities, stakeholders, and public health and social science researchers. KEYWORDS:COVID-19, Twitter, Social Media, Coronavirus, Lockdown, Pandemic

scholarly journals Political Messaging Over Time: A Comparison of US Presidential Candidate Facebook Posts and Tweets in 2016 and 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630512110634
Author(s):  
Jennifer Stromer-Galley ◽  
Patrícia Rossini ◽  
Jeff Hemsley ◽  
Sarah E. Bolden ◽  
Brian McKernan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
General Election ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Cycle Shape ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Using Data

Political campaigns have a temporal nature, which means that the strategic environment shapes the nature of candidate communication, especially the stages of campaigning—from surfacing to the general election. As social media platforms have matured and political campaigns have normalized their use of those platforms in this decade, this study examines the 2016 and 2020 US presidential campaign communication on Facebook and Twitter using data from the Illuminating project at Syracuse University. Our objective is to explore how the stages of the campaign cycle shape political communication. We also explore social media platforms as additional factors. Moreover, given the distinct and anti-normative communication style of Donald Trump, we examine whether his communication is an outlier relative to his competition in the primaries and the general election, and while a challenger in 2016 and an incumbent in 2020. Our results suggest that campaign messaging changes over the stages of the campaign, with candidates more likely to advocate for themselves during the crowded primaries, and then engage in high volumes of calls to action in the general election. The 2016 posts were substantially more attack-focused than in 2020. There is some evidence to suggest that the global pandemic affected the ways in which campaigns used their social media accounts. Of note, campaigns seem to heavily rely on Facebook for all types of strategic communication, even as the academic community primarily analyzes Twitter. Finally, Trump’s sum-total of his discourse is less negative than Clinton’s in 2016 and more advocacy-focused, overall.

Facade of media and social media during COVID-19: A review

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 142-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumar Chandan Srivastava ◽  
Deepti Shrivastava ◽  
Kumar Gaurav Chhabra ◽  
Waqar Naqvi ◽  
Arti Sahu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

A novel coronavirus (COVID-19) arose in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Soon it spread to other countries worldwide to become a pandemic. Globally, governments enforced quarantine and social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the infection. Mass media and social media platforms played a crucial role in providing information regarding the Coronavirus. Since little is known about COVID-19, various fake news, misinformation and rumours spread across the digital media that panicked people into making panic decisions. The rapid spread of misinformation and stories via social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube became a vital concern of the government and public health authorities. Medical misinformation and unverifiable content about the COVID-19 pandemic are spreading on social media at an unprecedented pace. Mitigating the advent of rumours and misinformation during the COVID-19 epidemic is crucial, since misinformation and fake news creates panic, fear and anxiety among people, predisposing them to various mental health conditions. Instead of considering social media as a secondary medium, it should be utilised to convey important information. Besides, it allows citizens to address their queries directly. Several governments across the world have taken actions to contain the pandemic of misinformation, yet measures are required to prevent such communication complications.

scholarly journals A Relationship-Centered and Culturally Informed Approach to Studying Misinformation on COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512094822
Author(s):  
Pranav Malhotra
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Culturally Informed ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
Relationship Centered

The panic and anxiety that accompanies a global pandemic is only exacerbated by the spread of misinformation. For COVID-19, in many parts of the world, such misinformation is circulating through globally popular mobile instant messaging services (MIMS) like WhatsApp and Telegram. Compared to more public social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, these services offer private, intimate, and often encrypted spaces for users to chat with family members and friends, making it difficult for the platform to moderate misinformation on them. Thus, there is an enhanced onus on users of MIMS to curb misinformation by correcting their family and friends within these spaces. Research on understanding how such relational correction occurs in different parts of the globe will need to attend to how the nature of these interpersonal relationships and the cultural dynamics that influence them shape the correction process. Thus, as people increasingly use MIMS to connect with close relations to make sense of this global crisis, studying the issue of misinformation on these services requires us to adopt a relationship-centered and culturally informed approach.

Risk Communication and Social Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 150-171
Author(s):  
Hikmet Tosyalı ◽  
Furkan Tosyalı
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Health Belief ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Twitter Account ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Belief Model

The new form of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. Then, the citizens were required to stay in their homes. In this process, social media has become the users' window to the global village. With the prolongation of the isolation process, the use and importance of these platforms in communication, entertainment, socialization, and access to instant information about the pandemic have increased. People and institutions responsible for pandemic management have started to frequently benefit from social media platforms in risk communication activities to create public awareness about the disease and reinforce individuals' beliefs to comply with the precautions. In this study, the person responsible for COVID-19 pandemic planning and response in Turkey, the Minister of Health's, Twitter account was analyzed. The posts shared by the Minister of Health were subjected to content analysis, and the messages conveyed to the citizens were examined from the perspective of the health belief model.

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