scholarly journals Please Let Science Talk: Presidential Sentiment and the Public’s Risk Perception in the Era of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Guo ◽  
Junhong Yang ◽  
Yeqin Zeng ◽  
Shulei Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
The Political ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Science Talk ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Impact

Abstract We examine whether and to what extent the presidential COVID-19 sentiment (PCS), constructed based on the former President Trump’s tweets, has influenced the public’s risk perception regarding COVID-19. We find that during the COVID-19 pandemic, PCS is negatively associated with social distancing behaviour in the Republican counties but is positively associated with social distancing behaviour in the Democratic counties. Our finding supports the view that individuals’ risk perception is influenced by the information they receive from politicians through social media, with the impact exhibiting as variations with respect to the individuals’ position on the political spectrum.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study on Social Media Use and Public Participation in Korea and the United States: Does Social Media Matter?

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-230
Author(s):  
Kim Eun Yi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Interaction Effect ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Impact

This study examines how the use of different types of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, affects public participation, drawing on the theory of motivation, which addresses the effect of internal and external political efficacy as well as the perceived political importance of social media. The study also investigates the interaction effect between social media use and perceived the political importance of social media on public participation. Employing a comparative perspective on an issue that has not been well studied, the study further seeks to discover potential variations in the impacts of different social media on public participation in the United States and Korea, both of which held presidential elections at the end of 2012. This study conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses using data collected from college students in the United States and Korea. It shows the positive impact of social media use and its interaction effect with the perceived political importance of social media on the offline and online public participation of youth. The political motivational factor is found to be critical to driving public participation. This study also shows that the impact of Facebook use is more influential than Twitter use on public participation in the United States, whereas the opposite pattern is observed in Korea.

Social Policy, Welfare, and Social Identities, 1900–1950

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Moses
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Family Policies ◽  
Population Politics ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Impact

The first half of the twentieth century witnessed the dramatic emergence of modern welfare states across Europe. Why did this transformation take form? Was this process uniform across Europe? And what did it mean for relations between individuals and states? This chapter suggests that European social policies in the early twentieth century were characterized by an emphasis on integration and community. This perspective chimed with widespread utopian aspirations for social improvement voiced across the political spectrum and across the Continent. Nonetheless, the relative emphasis on integration and community varied across Europe and over time. Moreover, associated quests for an ideal future held the potential to be both enabling and oppressive. This chapter highlights two related themes that reveal these complexities: work and population politics. It charts developments in social legislation across Europe, including eugenics, labour, and family policies, and it traces the impact of transnational reform movements and international organizations.

Social Media as Alternative Public Sphere for Citizen Participation and Protest in National Politics in Zimbabwe

2018 ◽  
pp. 17-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Collen Sabao ◽  
Tendai Owen Chikara
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Impact

The chapter examines and discusses the role and communicative potential of social media based platforms in citizen political participation and protests in Zimbabwe specifically focusing on the #thisflag movement on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. #thisflag is a social media-based platform that rose to challenge the Zimbabwean government over the political and economic decay as well as rampant corruption characterising the country contemporarily. While a new phenomenon to Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean politics, the impact and communicative potential of social media as an alternative public sphere was recently tested in nationwide protest stayaway organised through the Facebook and Twitter movement under the #thisflag handle/brand. This chapter discusses the manners in which such social media platforms impact national politics in Zimbabwe as well as globally, specifically looking at the #thisflag movement as a case study.

Social Media as Alternative Public Sphere for Citizen Participation and Protest in National Politics in Zimbabwe

2020 ◽  
pp. 772-786
Author(s):  
Collen Sabao ◽  
Tendai Owen Chikara
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Impact

The chapter examines and discusses the role and communicative potential of social media based platforms in citizen political participation and protests in Zimbabwe specifically focusing on the #thisflag movement on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. #thisflag is a social media-based platform that rose to challenge the Zimbabwean government over the political and economic decay as well as rampant corruption characterising the country contemporarily. While a new phenomenon to Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean politics, the impact and communicative potential of social media as an alternative public sphere was recently tested in nationwide protest stayaway organised through the Facebook and Twitter movement under the #thisflag handle/brand. This chapter discusses the manners in which such social media platforms impact national politics in Zimbabwe as well as globally, specifically looking at the #thisflag movement as a case study.

scholarly journals Mining and Validating Social Media for COVID-19-Related Human Behaviors between January and July; An Infodemiology Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashlynn R. Daughton ◽  
Courtney Diane Shelley ◽  
Martha Barnard ◽  
Dax Gerts ◽  
Chrysm Watson Ross ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Human Behaviors ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND Health authorities can minimize the impact of an emergent infectious disease outbreak through effective and timely risk communication, which can build trust and adherence to subsequent behavioral messaging. Monitoring the psychological impacts of an outbreak, as well as public adherence to such messaging is also important for minimizing long term effects of an outbreak. OBJECTIVE We used social media data to identify human behaviors relevant to COVID-19 transmission and the perceived impacts of COVID-19 on individuals as a first step toward real time monitoring of public perceptions to inform public health communications. METHODS We develop a coding schema for 6 categories and 11 subcategories, which includes both a wide number of behaviors, as well codes focused on the impacts of the pandemic (e.g., economic and mental health impacts). We use this to develop training data and develop supervised learning classifiers for classes with sufficient labels. Classifiers that perform adequately are applied to our remaining corpus and temporal and geospatial trends are assessed. We compare the classified patterns to ground truth mobility data and actual COVID-19 confirmed cases to assess the signal achieved here. RESULTS We apply our labeling schema to ~7200 tweets. The worst performing classifiers have F1 scores of only 0.18-0.28 when trying to identify tweets about monitoring symptoms and testing. Classifiers about social distancing, however, are much stronger with F1 scores of 0.64-0.66. We applied the social distancing classifiers to over 228 million tweets. We show temporal patterns consistent with real-world events, and show correlations of up to -0.5 between social distancing signals on Twitter and ground-truth mobility throughout the United States. CONCLUSIONS Behaviors discussed on Twitter are exceptionally varied. Twitter can provide useful information for parameterizing models that incorporate human behavior as well as informing public health communication strategies by describing awareness of and compliance with suggested behaviors. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

scholarly journals Association Between Public Knowledge About COVID-19, Trust in Information Sources, and Adherence to Social Distancing: Cross-Sectional Survey (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilona Fridman ◽  
Nicole Lucas ◽  
Debra Henke ◽  
Christina K Zigler
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND The success of behavioral interventions and policies designed to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic depends on how well individuals are informed about both the consequences of infection and the steps that should be taken to reduce the impact of the disease. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate associations between public knowledge about COVID-19, adherence to social distancing, and public trust in government information sources (eg, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), private sources (eg, FOX and CNN), and social networks (eg, Facebook and Twitter) to inform future policies related to critical information distribution. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional survey (N=1243) between April 10 and 14, 2020. Data collection was stratified by US region and other demographics to ensure representativeness of the sample. RESULTS Government information sources were the most trusted among the public. However, we observed trends in the data that suggested variations in trust by age and gender. White and older populations generally expressed higher trust in government sources, while non-White and younger populations expressed higher trust in private sources (eg, CNN) and social networks (eg, Twitter). Trust in government sources was positively associated with accurate knowledge about COVID-19 and adherence to social distancing. However, trust in private sources (eg, FOX and CNN) was negatively associated with knowledge about COVID-19. Similarly, trust in social networks (eg, Facebook and Twitter) was negatively associated with both knowledge and adherence to social distancing. CONCLUSIONS During pandemics such as the COVID-19 outbreak, policy makers should carefully consider the quality of information disseminated through private sources and social networks. Furthermore, when disseminating urgent health information, a variety of information sources should be used to ensure that diverse populations have timely access to critical knowledge.

scholarly journals Impact of Risk Perception on Trust in Government and Self-Efficiency During COVID-19 pandemic: Does Social Media Content Help Users Adopt Preventative Measures?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Salah Hassan ◽  
Hussam Al Halbusi ◽  
Ali Najem ◽  
Asbah Razali ◽  
Kent A. Williams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Preventative Measures ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The public’s actions will likely have a significant effect on the course of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Human behavior is conditioned and shaped by information and perceptions of people. This study investigated the impact of risk perception on trust in government and self-efficacy. It examined whether the use of social media helps people adopt preventative actions during the pandemic. To test this hypothesis, data were gathered from 512 individuals (students and academicians) who were based in Malaysia during COVID-19. Our results suggested that risk perception had a significant effect on trust in government and self-efficacy. Moreover, these correlations were stronger when social media was used as a source for gathering information on COVID-19, and in some cases it even helped the user avoid being exposed to the virus. This study assessed the relationship between risk perception and the awareness gained from using social media during the pandemic and also highlighted how social media usage influences trust in government and self-efficacy.

Epilogue

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rogers ◽  
Sal Hagen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
The Political ◽  
Junk Food ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The Us ◽  
Political Spectrum

The publication of the study elicited reactions, especially on Twitter, where questions arose about the use of the notion of junk news, rather than ‘pulp news’, among other points. The analogy to junk food is emphasised. There was also the question of symmetry, and the treatment of both ends of the political spectrum. Why is the new populist right identified as the purveyors of extreme content? We found a polarised Dutch media landscape where hyperpartisan (and to a lesser extent conspiracy) content from new populist right (rather than the left or other orientations) circulates well on social media. Unlike in the US during the initial Trump insurgency, mainstream news in the Netherlands still outperforms what was hitherto known as ‘fake news’, across all platforms.

Harnessing the Power of Social Media to Understand the Impact of COVID-19 on People Who Use Drugs During Lockdown and Social Distancing

2021 ◽  
Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽  
Author(s):  
Nabila El-Bassel ◽  
Karli R. Hochstatter ◽  
Melissa N. Slavin ◽  
Chenghao Yang ◽  
Yudong Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
People Who Use Drugs ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The Impact

Reactions to China-linked Fake News: Experimental Evidence from Taiwan

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Fin Bauer ◽  
Kimberly L. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Competing Hypotheses ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
False News

Abstract China is accused of conducting disinformation campaigns on Taiwan's social media. Existing studies on foreign interventions in democratic societies predict that such disinformation campaigns should lead to increasing partisan polarization within Taiwan. We argue that a backlash effect, making Taiwan's citizens more united against China, is equally plausible. We conduct a survey experiment exposing participants to a real-life rumour and rebuttal to test these competing hypotheses. We find, at best, mixed evidence for polarization. Although neither rumour nor rebuttal mention China, there is consistent evidence of backlash against China. Most notably, participants across the political spectrum are more inclined to support Taiwanese independence after viewing the rumour rebuttal. These findings indicate that citizens may put aside partisanship when confronted with false news that is plausibly linked to an external actor. We conclude by discussing the broader applicability of our theory and implications for cross-Strait relations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document