Dimensions of Misinformation About the HPV Vaccine on Instagram: Content and Network Analysis of Social Media Characteristics

Background The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is a major advancement in cancer prevention and this primary prevention tool has the potential to reduce and eliminate HPV-associated cancers; however, the safety and efficacy of vaccines in general and the HPV vaccine specifically have come under attack, particularly through the spread of misinformation on social media. The popular social media platform Instagram represents a significant source of exposure to health (mis)information; 1 in 3 US adults use Instagram. Objective The objective of this analysis was to characterize pro- and anti-HPV vaccine networks on Instagram, and to describe misinformation within the anti-HPV vaccine network. Methods From April 2018 to December 2018, we collected publicly available English-language Instagram posts containing hashtags #HPV, #HPVVaccine, or #Gardasil using Netlytic software (n=16,607). We randomly selected 10% of the sample and content analyzed relevant posts (n=580) for text, image, and social media features as well as holistic attributes (eg, sentiments, personal stories). Among antivaccine posts, we organized elements of misinformation within four broad dimensions: 1) misinformation theoretical domains, 2) vaccine debate topics, 3) evidence base, and 4) health beliefs. We conducted univariate, bivariate, and network analyses on the subsample of posts to quantify the role and position of individual posts in the network. Results Compared to provaccine posts (324/580, 55.9%), antivaccine posts (256/580, 44.1%) were more likely to originate from individuals (64.1% antivaccine vs 25.0% provaccine; P<.001) and include personal narratives (37.1% vs 25.6%; P=.003). In the antivaccine network, core misinformation characteristics included mentioning #Gardasil, purporting to reveal a lie (ie, concealment), conspiracy theories, unsubstantiated claims, and risk of vaccine injury. Information/resource posts clustered around misinformation domains including falsification, nanopublications, and vaccine-preventable disease, whereas personal narrative posts clustered around different domains of misinformation, including concealment, injury, and conspiracy theories. The most liked post (6634 likes) in our full subsample was a positive personal narrative post, created by a non-health individual; the most liked post (5604 likes) in our antivaccine subsample was an informational post created by a health individual. Conclusions Identifying characteristics of misinformation related to HPV vaccine on social media will inform targeted interventions (eg, network opinion leaders) and help sow corrective information and stories tailored to different falsehoods.

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Dimensions of Misinformation About the HPV Vaccine on Instagram: Content and Network Analysis of Social Media Characteristics (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.21451 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Philip M Massey ◽

Matthew D Kearney ◽

Michael K Hauer ◽

Preethi Selvan ◽

Emmanuel Koku ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Health Beliefs ◽

Hpv Vaccine ◽

English Language ◽

Personal Narrative ◽

Personal Narratives ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Conspiracy Theories ◽

Targeted Interventions ◽

Network Analyses

BACKGROUND The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is a major advancement in cancer prevention and this primary prevention tool has the potential to reduce and eliminate HPV-associated cancers; however, the safety and efficacy of vaccines in general and the HPV vaccine specifically have come under attack, particularly through the spread of misinformation on social media. The popular social media platform Instagram represents a significant source of exposure to health (mis)information; 1 in 3 US adults use Instagram. OBJECTIVE The objective of this analysis was to characterize pro- and anti-HPV vaccine networks on Instagram, and to describe misinformation within the anti-HPV vaccine network. METHODS From April 2018 to December 2018, we collected publicly available English-language Instagram posts containing hashtags #HPV, #HPVVaccine, or #Gardasil using Netlytic software (n=16,607). We randomly selected 10% of the sample and content analyzed relevant posts (n=580) for text, image, and social media features as well as holistic attributes (eg, sentiments, personal stories). Among antivaccine posts, we organized elements of misinformation within four broad dimensions: 1) misinformation theoretical domains, 2) vaccine debate topics, 3) evidence base, and 4) health beliefs. We conducted univariate, bivariate, and network analyses on the subsample of posts to quantify the role and position of individual posts in the network. RESULTS Compared to provaccine posts (324/580, 55.9%), antivaccine posts (256/580, 44.1%) were more likely to originate from individuals (64.1% antivaccine vs 25.0% provaccine; <i>P</i><.001) and include personal narratives (37.1% vs 25.6%; <i>P</i>=.003). In the antivaccine network, core misinformation characteristics included mentioning #Gardasil, purporting to reveal a lie (ie, concealment), conspiracy theories, unsubstantiated claims, and risk of vaccine injury. Information/resource posts clustered around misinformation domains including falsification, nanopublications, and vaccine-preventable disease, whereas personal narrative posts clustered around different domains of misinformation, including concealment, injury, and conspiracy theories. The most liked post (6634 likes) in our full subsample was a positive personal narrative post, created by a non-health individual; the most liked post (5604 likes) in our antivaccine subsample was an informational post created by a health individual. CONCLUSIONS Identifying characteristics of misinformation related to HPV vaccine on social media will inform targeted interventions (eg, network opinion leaders) and help sow corrective information and stories tailored to different falsehoods.

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Characterizing HPV Vaccine Sentiments and Content on Instagram

Health Education & Behavior ◽

10.1177/1090198119859412 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 46 (2_suppl) ◽

pp. 37S-48S ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Matthew D. Kearney ◽

Preethi Selvan ◽

Michael K. Hauer ◽

Amy E. Leader ◽

Philip M. Massey

Keyword(s):

Hpv Vaccine ◽

English Language ◽

Personal Narrative ◽

Hpv Vaccination ◽

Personal Narratives ◽

Misleading Information ◽

Search Terms ◽

Health Related ◽

User Friendly ◽

The Impact

Background. With its growing popularity, inclusion of image and text, and user-friendly interface, Instagram is uniquely positioned for exploring health behaviors and sources and types of informational exposure related to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Aims. To characterize public Instagram posts about the HPV vaccine and quantify the impact of sentiment and context on engagement via likes. Method. Using Netlytic, 3,378 publicly available English-language posts were collected using the search terms “#HPV,” “#HPVVaccine,” and “#Gardasil.” We randomly selected 1,200 posts to content analyze. Our final analytic sample included 360 posts after excluding posts whose links were no longer active ( n = 221) or that were not relevant ( n = 619). Results. A higher proportion of posts were pro-vaccine (55.8%) than anti-vaccine (42.2%). Pro-HPV vaccination posts were liked significantly less than anti-vaccination posts (24 vs. 86 likes; p < .001). More posts contained actionable information/resources (63.9%) than personal narrative elements (36.1%). Less than one in three posts (30.0%) came from health-related sources. Discussion. Pro-vaccine posts were more prevalent on Instagram, and anti-vaccine posts had higher engagement and typically included misleading information about the HPV vaccine. Personal narratives skewed toward anti-vaccine sentiments and most were produced by individual users. Pro-vaccine narratives portrayed individuals who received the vaccine, but provided limited details on vaccine experiences, starkly contrasting with the depth of details in anti-vaccine personal narrative posts. Conclusion. On Instagram, individuals and organizations have an opportunity to promote HPV vaccination by continuing to provide informational resources in addition to creating more narrative-style posts.

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Ensemble Classifiers for Arabic Sentiment Analysis of Social Network (Twitter Data) towards COVID-19-Related Conspiracy Theories

Applied Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing ◽

10.1155/2022/6614730 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 2022 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Abdullah Al-Hashedi ◽

Belal Al-Fuhaidi ◽

Abdulqader M. Mohsen ◽

Yousef Ali ◽

Hasan Ali Gamal Al-Kaf ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Social Media ◽

Sentiment Analysis ◽

English Language ◽

Word Embedding ◽

Ensemble Classifiers ◽

Conspiracy Theories ◽

Machine Learning Model ◽

Arabic Sentiment Analysis ◽

The Impact

Sentiment analysis has recently become increasingly important with a massive increase in online content. It is associated with the analysis of textual data generated by social media that can be easily accessed, obtained, and analyzed. With the emergence of COVID-19, most published studies related to COVID-19’s conspiracy theories were surveys on the people's sentiments and opinions and studied the impact of the pandemic on their lives. Just a few studies utilized sentiment analysis of social media using a machine learning approach. These studies focused more on sentiment analysis of Twitter tweets in the English language and did not pay more attention to other languages such as Arabic. This study proposes a machine learning model to analyze the Arabic tweets from Twitter. In this model, we apply Word2Vec for word embedding which formed the main source of features. Two pretrained continuous bag-of-words (CBOW) models are investigated, and Naïve Bayes was used as a baseline classifier. Several single-based and ensemble-based machine learning classifiers have been used with and without SMOTE (synthetic minority oversampling technique). The experimental results show that applying word embedding with an ensemble and SMOTE achieved good improvement on average of F1 score compared to the baseline classifier and other classifiers (single-based and ensemble-based) without SMOTE.

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Being the change: charting Greg de Hoedt’s cannabis journey

Drugs and Alcohol Today ◽

10.1108/dat-01-2018-0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 126-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Melissa Bone ◽

Greg de Hoedt

Keyword(s):

Drug Policy ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Personal Narrative ◽

Personal Narratives ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Expert Evidence ◽

Effect Change ◽

Content Type ◽

Cannabis Policy ◽

Policy Discussion

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to document a leading UK cannabis activist’s efforts to bring about policy change and to convey his human story as a medical consumer. The paper contends that it is not enough to present evidence-based policies to effect change in drug policy, it is also vital to tell human stories, which people can relate to, in order to develop narratives which speak to people’s values. Design/methodology/approach An in depth, unstructured interview was conducted between Dr Melissa Bone and Cannabis Activist, Greg de Hoedt in December 2017. The interview was recorded, transcribed and formed the basis of the paper, which was co-edited and co-created by both authors. Findings The paper charts Greg’s journey from being a cannabis consumer – to being diagnosed with Crohn’s – to being a cannabis activist. The paper interweaves a drug policy discussion with a personal narrative. It connects unique insights into Greg’s life with the broader forces and institutions which influence cannabis policy at a local, national and international level. Originality/value Incorporating Greg’s personal narrative within an academic platform integrates his experiential knowledge into the “expert” evidence base. Alongside the potential of personal narratives to facilitate the production of knowledge, Greg’s emotive story could help to shape the public’s perception of cannabis, which could subsequently influence policy.

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Impact of Social Media on English Language: A Review

SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH ◽

10.24113/ijellh.v3i3.10426 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 5

Author(s):

Dr. Neha Sharma

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Cultural Values ◽

English Language ◽

Major Influence ◽

International Level ◽

Class Society ◽

The World ◽

The Status ◽

The Media ◽

Subsequent Rise

Language being a potent vehicle of transmitting cultural values, norms and beliefs remains a central factor in determining the status of any nation. India is a multilingual country which tends to encourage people to use English at national and international level. Basically English in India owes its presence to the British but its subsequent rise is not fully attributable to the British. It has now become the language of wider communication which is now spoken by large number of people all over the world. It is influenced by many factors such as class, society, developments in science and technology etc. However the major influence on English language is and has been the media.

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Electronic Communication, Telehealth, and Social Media

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190634841.013.46 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Muniya S. Khanna ◽

Tommy Chou

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Rural Communities ◽

Unmet Need ◽

Mental Healthcare ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Intervention Delivery ◽

Safety Issues ◽

Video Teleconferencing ◽

Empirically Supported ◽

Traditional Service

Explosive growth of communication technologies and increased ubiquity of Internet access in both urban and rural communities and particularly in youth have occurred. Coupled with concerns regarding limitations to traditional service provision models, researchers and practitioners are looking to affordable, acceptable technologies to expand the reach of evidence-based care and reduce barriers to intervention and unmet need in areas with few providers. This chapter describes the present literature on use of video teleconferencing, web-based programs, social media, and smartphone apps to enhance mental health intervention delivery, psychiatric assessment, and training and supervision. The strengths of the various delivery methods are discussed for providing empirically supported mental healthcare, focusing on implications related to science and practice with children and families. Outlined also are current limitations, risks, and challenges to technology-mediated services, including the significant gaps in the evidence base underlying these technologies and the legal, ethical, and safety issues that remain.

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Identifying HPV Vaccine Narrative Communication Needs among Parents on Social Media

Preventive Medicine Reports ◽

10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101488 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 101488

Author(s):

Philip M Massey ◽

Elikem Togo ◽

Shawn Chiang ◽

Ann C Klassen ◽

Meredith Rose ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Hpv Vaccine ◽

Communication Needs

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The availability of global guidance for the promotion of women’s, newborns’, children’s and adolescents’ health and nutrition in conflicts

BMJ Global Health ◽

10.1136/bmjgh-2019-002060 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (Suppl 1) ◽

pp. e002060

Author(s):

Samira Aboubaker ◽

Egmond Samir Evers ◽

Loulou Kobeissi ◽

Lauren Francis ◽

Robinah Najjemba ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Adolescent Health ◽

English Language ◽

Guideline Development ◽

Newborn Care ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Communicable Diseases ◽

Key Informants ◽

Humanitarian Settings ◽

Health And Nutrition ◽

Guidance Documents

BackgroundSignificant global gains in sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition (SRMNCAH&N) will be difficult unless conflict settings are adequately addressed. We aimed to determine the amount, scope and quality of publically available guidance documents, to characterise the process by which agencies develop their guidance and to identify gaps in guidance on SRMNCAH&N promotion in conflicts.MethodsWe identified guidance documents published between 2008 and 2018 through English-language Internet sites of humanitarian response organisations, reviewed them for their scope and assessed their quality with the AGREE II (Appraisal of Guidelines for REsearch and Evaluation II) tool. Additionally, we interviewed 22 key informants on guidance development, dissemination processes, perceived guidance gaps and applicability.FindingsWe identified 105 conflict-relevant guidance documents from 75 organisations. Of these, nine were specific to conflicts, others were applicable also to other humanitarian settings. Fifteen documents were technical normative guidelines, others were operational guides (67), descriptive documents (21) or advice on legal, human rights or ethics questions (2). Nutrition was the most addressed health topic, followed by communicable diseases and violence. The documents rated high quality in their ‘scope and purpose’ and ‘clarity of presentation’ and low for ‘rigour of development’ and ‘editorial independence’. Key informants reported end user need as the primary driver for guideline development and WHO technical guidelines as their main evidence base. Insufficient local contextualisation, lack of inter-agency coordination and lack of systematic implementation were considered problems in guideline development. Several guidance gaps were noted, including abortion care, newborn care, early child development, mental health, adolescent health beyond sexual and reproductive health and non-communicable diseases.InterpretationOrganisations are motivated and actively producing guidance for SRMNCAH&N promotion in humanitarian settings, but few documents address conflicts specifically and there are important guidance gaps. Improved inter-organisation collaboration for guidance on SRMNCAH&N promotion in conflicts and other humanitarian settings is needed.

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The COVID‐19 pandemic and the search for structure: Social media and conspiracy theories

Social and Personality Psychology Compass ◽

10.1111/spc3.12636 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin J. Dow ◽

Amber L. Johnson ◽

Cynthia S. Wang ◽

Jennifer Whitson ◽

Tanya Menon

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Conspiracy Theories

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Primary Crime Prevention Apps: A Typology and Scoping Review

Trauma Violence & Abuse ◽

10.1177/1524838020985560 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 152483802098556

Author(s):

Mark A. Wood ◽

Stuart Ross ◽

Diana Johns

Keyword(s):

Crime Prevention ◽

Scoping Review ◽

Decision Aid ◽

English Language ◽

Web Of Science ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Smartphone Apps ◽

Initial Sample ◽

Language Research ◽

Meta Analyses

In the last decade, an array of smartphone apps have been designed to prevent crime, violence, and abuse. The evidence base of these apps has, however, yet to analyzed systematically. To rectify this, the aims of this review were (1) to establish the extent, range, and nature of research into smartphone apps with a primary crime prevention function; (2) to locate gaps in the primary crime prevention app literature; and (3) to develop a typology of primary crime prevention apps. Employing a scoping review methodology and following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, studies were identified via Web of Science, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar. We included English-language research published between 2008 and 2020 that examined smartphone applications designed explicitly for primary crime prevention. Sixty-one publications met our criteria for review, out of an initial sample of 151 identified. Our review identified six types of crime prevention app examined in these publications: self-surveillance apps, decision aid apps, child-tracking apps, educational apps, crime-mapping/alert apps, and crime reporting apps. The findings of our review indicate that most of these forms of primary crime prevention apps have yet to be rigorously evaluated and many are not evidence-based in their design. Consequently, our review indicates that recent enthusiasm over primary crime prevention apps is not supported by an adequate evidence base.

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