scholarly journals Infodemic Signal Detection During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Development of a Methodology for Identifying Potential Information Voids in Online Conversations

10.2196/30971 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e30971
Author(s):  
Tina D Purnat ◽  
Paolo Vacca ◽  
Christine Czerniak ◽  
Sarah Ball ◽  
Stefano Burzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
World Health ◽  
Aggregated Data ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Online Conversations ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Social Listening

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an infodemic: excess information, including false or misleading information, in digital and physical environments during an acute public health event. This infodemic is leading to confusion and risk-taking behaviors that can be harmful to health, as well as to mistrust in health authorities and public health responses. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working to develop tools to provide an evidence-based response to the infodemic, enabling prioritization of health response activities. Objective In this work, we aimed to develop a practical, structured approach to identify narratives in public online conversations on social media platforms where concerns or confusion exist or where narratives are gaining traction, thus providing actionable data to help the WHO prioritize its response efforts to address the COVID-19 infodemic. Methods We developed a taxonomy to filter global public conversations in English and French related to COVID-19 on social media into 5 categories with 35 subcategories. The taxonomy and its implementation were validated for retrieval precision and recall, and they were reviewed and adapted as language about the pandemic in online conversations changed over time. The aggregated data for each subcategory were analyzed on a weekly basis by volume, velocity, and presence of questions to detect signals of information voids with potential for confusion or where mis- or disinformation may thrive. A human analyst reviewed and identified potential information voids and sources of confusion, and quantitative data were used to provide insights on emerging narratives, influencers, and public reactions to COVID-19–related topics. Results A COVID-19 public health social listening taxonomy was developed, validated, and applied to filter relevant content for more focused analysis. A weekly analysis of public online conversations since March 23, 2020, enabled quantification of shifting interests in public health–related topics concerning the pandemic, and the analysis demonstrated recurring voids of verified health information. This approach therefore focuses on the detection of infodemic signals to generate actionable insights to rapidly inform decision-making for a more targeted and adaptive response, including risk communication. Conclusions This approach has been successfully applied to identify and analyze infodemic signals, particularly information voids, to inform the COVID-19 pandemic response. More broadly, the results have demonstrated the importance of ongoing monitoring and analysis of public online conversations, as information voids frequently recur and narratives shift over time. The approach is being piloted in individual countries and WHO regions to generate localized insights and actions; meanwhile, a pilot of an artificial intelligence–based social listening platform is using this taxonomy to aggregate and compare online conversations across 20 countries. Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the taxonomy and methodology may be adapted for fast deployment in future public health events, and they could form the basis of a routine social listening program for health preparedness and response planning.

scholarly journals Infodemic Signals Detection in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Methodology for Identifying Potential Information Voids in Online Conversations (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina D Purnat ◽  
Paolo Vacca ◽  
Christine Czerniak ◽  
Sarah Ball ◽  
Stefano Burzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Aggregated Data ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Online Conversations ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Social Listening

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an information epidemic or “infodemic”: too much information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during an acute public health event, which leads to confusion, risk-taking and behaviors that can harm health, and lead to mistrust in health authorities and public health response. The analytical method described is part of the WHO work to develop tools for an evidence-based response to the infodemic, enabling prioritization of health response activities. OBJECTIVE The aim of this work was to develop a practical, structured approach to identifying narratives in public online conversations on social media platforms where concerns or confusion exist or where narratives are gaining traction, and to provide actionable data to help WHO prioritize its risk communications efforts where it is most critical in addressing the COVID-19 infodemic. METHODS We developed a taxonomy to filter global COVID-19 public online conversations in social media content in English and French into five themes, with 35 sub themes. The taxonomy and its implementation were validated for retrieval precision and retrieval recall, and reviewed and adapted as the linguistic expression about the pandemic in online conversations changed over time. The aggregated data were analyzed for each sub themes by volume, velocity and the presence of questions, on a weekly basis, to detect signals of information voids where there was potential for confusion or for mis- or dis-information to thrive. A human analyst reviewed the themes for potential information voids and used quantitative data to provide context and insight on narratives, influencers and public reactions. RESULTS A COVID-19 public health social listening taxonomy was developed and applied. A weekly analysis of public online conversations since 23 March 2020 has enabled the quantification of shifts of public interest in public health-related topics concerning the pandemic and has demonstrated the frequent resumption of information voids with verified health information. This approach therefore focuses on infodemic signal detection for actionable intelligence to rapidly inform decision-making for a more effective response, including adapting risk communication. CONCLUSIONS This approach been successfully applied during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify and take action on information voids based on analysis of infodemic signals. More broadly, the results have demonstrated the importance of ongoing monitoring and analysis of public online conversations, as information voids frequently resume and narratives shift over time. The approach is already being piloted in individual countries and WHO regions to generate localized insights and actions, while a pilot of an AI social listening platform is using this taxonomy to aggregate and compare online conversations across 20 countries. Looking beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the taxonomy and methodology have the potential to be adapted for fast deployment in future public health events.

scholarly journals An Instagram-Based Study to Understand Betel Nut Use Culture in Micronesia: Exploratory Content Analysis

10.2196/13954 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. e13954
Author(s):  
Wayne Buente ◽  
Francis Dalisay ◽  
Pallav Pokhrel ◽  
Hanae Kurihara Kramer ◽  
Ian Pagano
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
World Health ◽  
Betel Nut ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Health Organization

Background A 2012 World Health Organization report recognizes betel nut use as an urgent public health threat faced by the Western Pacific region. However, compared with other addictive substances, little is known about how betel nuts are depicted on social media platforms. In particular, image-based social media platforms can be powerful tools for health communication. Studying the content of substance use on visual social media may provide valuable insights into public health interventions. Objective This study aimed to explore and document the ways that betel nut is portrayed on the photo-sharing site Instagram. The analysis focuses on the hashtag #pugua, which refers to the local term for betel nut in Guam and other parts of Micronesia. Methods An exploratory content analysis of 242 Instagram posts tagged #pugua was conducted based on previous research on substance use and Instagram and betel nut practices in Micronesia. In addition, the study examined the social engagement of betel nut content on the image-based platform. Results The study findings revealed content themes referencing the betel nut or betel nut tree, betel nut preparation practices, and the unique social and cultural context surrounding betel nut activity in Guam and Micronesia. In addition, certain practices and cultural themes encouraged social engagement on Instagram. Conclusions The findings from this study emphasize the cultural relevance of betel nut use in Micronesia. These findings provide a basis for empirically testing hypotheses related to the etiological roles of cultural identity and pride in shaping betel nut use behavior among Micronesians, particularly youths and young adults. Such research is likely to inform the development of culturally relevant betel nut prevention and cessation programs.

scholarly journals An Instagram-Based Study to Understand Betel Nut Use Culture in Micronesia: Exploratory Content Analysis (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Buente ◽  
Francis Dalisay ◽  
Pallav Pokhrel ◽  
Hanae Kurihara Kramer ◽  
Ian Pagano
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
World Health ◽  
Betel Nut ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Health Organization

BACKGROUND A 2012 World Health Organization report recognizes betel nut use as an urgent public health threat faced by the Western Pacific region. However, compared with other addictive substances, little is known about how betel nuts are depicted on social media platforms. In particular, image-based social media platforms can be powerful tools for health communication. Studying the content of substance use on visual social media may provide valuable insights into public health interventions. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore and document the ways that betel nut is portrayed on the photo-sharing site Instagram. The analysis focuses on the hashtag #pugua, which refers to the local term for betel nut in Guam and other parts of Micronesia. METHODS An exploratory content analysis of 242 Instagram posts tagged #pugua was conducted based on previous research on substance use and Instagram and betel nut practices in Micronesia. In addition, the study examined the social engagement of betel nut content on the image-based platform. RESULTS The study findings revealed content themes referencing the betel nut or betel nut tree, betel nut preparation practices, and the unique social and cultural context surrounding betel nut activity in Guam and Micronesia. In addition, certain practices and cultural themes encouraged social engagement on Instagram. CONCLUSIONS The findings from this study emphasize the cultural relevance of betel nut use in Micronesia. These findings provide a basis for empirically testing hypotheses related to the etiological roles of cultural identity and pride in shaping betel nut use behavior among Micronesians, particularly youths and young adults. Such research is likely to inform the development of culturally relevant betel nut prevention and cessation programs.

scholarly journals Misinformation, chiropractic, and the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iben Axén ◽  
Cecilia Bergström ◽  
Marc Bronson ◽  
Pierre Côté ◽  
Casper Glissmann Nim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
World Health ◽  
Chiropractic Treatment ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background In March 2020, the World Health Organization elevated the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic to a pandemic and called for urgent and aggressive action worldwide. Public health experts have communicated clear and emphatic strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Hygiene rules and social distancing practices have been implemented by entire populations, including ‘stay-at-home’ orders in many countries. The long-term health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are not yet known. Main text During this time of crisis, some chiropractors made claims on social media that chiropractic treatment can prevent or impact COVID-19. The rationale for these claims is that spinal manipulation can impact the nervous system and thus improve immunity. These beliefs often stem from nineteenth-century chiropractic concepts. We are aware of no clinically relevant scientific evidence to support such statements. We explored the internet and social media to collect examples of misinformation from Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand regarding the impact of chiropractic treatment on immune function. We discuss the potential harm resulting from these claims and explore the role of chiropractors, teaching institutions, accrediting agencies, and legislative bodies. Conclusions Members of the chiropractic profession share a collective responsibility to act in the best interests of patients and public health. We hope that all chiropractic stakeholders will view the COVID-19 pandemic as a call to action to eliminate the unethical and potentially dangerous claims made by chiropractors who practise outside the boundaries of scientific evidence.

scholarly journals Temporal and Location Variations, and Link Categories for the Dissemination of COVID-19–Related Information on Twitter During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak in Europe: Infoveillance Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Pobiruchin ◽  
Richard Zowalla ◽  
Martin Wiesner
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Relative Proportion ◽  
World Health ◽  
Shared Resources ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
External Resources ◽  
Geographical Variations ◽  
Social Media Platforms

BACKGROUND The spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, across Asia and Europe sparked a significant increase in public interest and media coverage, including on social media platforms such as Twitter. In this context, the origin of information plays a central role in the dissemination of evidence-based information about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19. On February 2, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) constituted a “massive infodemic” and argued that this situation “makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.” OBJECTIVE This <i>infoveillance</i> study, conducted during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, focuses on the social media platform Twitter. It allows monitoring of the dynamic pandemic situation on a global scale for different aspects and topics, languages, as well as regions and even whole countries. Of particular interest are temporal and geographical variations of COVID-19–related tweets, the situation in Europe, and the categories and origin of shared external resources. METHODS Twitter’s Streaming application programming interface was used to filter tweets based on 16 prevalent hashtags related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Each tweet’s text and corresponding metadata as well as the user’s profile information were extracted and stored into a database. Metadata included links to external resources. A link categorization scheme—introduced in a study by Chew and Eysenbach in 2009—was applied onto the top 250 shared resources to analyze the relative proportion for each category. Moreover, temporal variations of global tweet volumes were analyzed and a specific analysis was conducted for the European region. RESULTS Between February 9 and April 11, 2020, a total of 21,755,802 distinct tweets were collected, posted by 4,809,842 distinct Twitter accounts. The volume of #covid19-related tweets increased after the WHO announced the name of the new disease on February 11, 2020, and stabilized at the end of March at a high level. For the regional analysis, a higher tweet volume was observed in the vicinity of major European capitals or in densely populated areas. The most frequently shared resources originated from various social media platforms (ranks 1-7). The most prevalent category in the top 50 was “Mainstream or Local News.” For the category “Government or Public Health,” only two information sources were found in the top 50: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at rank 25 and the WHO at rank 27. The first occurrence of a prevalent scientific source was Nature (rank 116). CONCLUSIONS The naming of the disease by the WHO was a major signal to address the public audience with public health response via social media platforms such as Twitter. Future studies should focus on the origin and trustworthiness of shared resources, as monitoring the spread of fake news during a pandemic situation is of particular importance. In addition, it would be beneficial to analyze and uncover bot networks spreading COVID-19–related misinformation.

scholarly journals Temporal and Location Variations, and Link Categories for the Dissemination of COVID-19–Related Information on Twitter During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak in Europe: Infoveillance Study

10.2196/19629 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. e19629
Author(s):  
Monika Pobiruchin ◽  
Richard Zowalla ◽  
Martin Wiesner
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Relative Proportion ◽  
World Health ◽  
Shared Resources ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
External Resources ◽  
Geographical Variations ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Background The spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, across Asia and Europe sparked a significant increase in public interest and media coverage, including on social media platforms such as Twitter. In this context, the origin of information plays a central role in the dissemination of evidence-based information about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19. On February 2, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) constituted a “massive infodemic” and argued that this situation “makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.” Objective This infoveillance study, conducted during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, focuses on the social media platform Twitter. It allows monitoring of the dynamic pandemic situation on a global scale for different aspects and topics, languages, as well as regions and even whole countries. Of particular interest are temporal and geographical variations of COVID-19–related tweets, the situation in Europe, and the categories and origin of shared external resources. Methods Twitter’s Streaming application programming interface was used to filter tweets based on 16 prevalent hashtags related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Each tweet’s text and corresponding metadata as well as the user’s profile information were extracted and stored into a database. Metadata included links to external resources. A link categorization scheme—introduced in a study by Chew and Eysenbach in 2009—was applied onto the top 250 shared resources to analyze the relative proportion for each category. Moreover, temporal variations of global tweet volumes were analyzed and a specific analysis was conducted for the European region. Results Between February 9 and April 11, 2020, a total of 21,755,802 distinct tweets were collected, posted by 4,809,842 distinct Twitter accounts. The volume of #covid19-related tweets increased after the WHO announced the name of the new disease on February 11, 2020, and stabilized at the end of March at a high level. For the regional analysis, a higher tweet volume was observed in the vicinity of major European capitals or in densely populated areas. The most frequently shared resources originated from various social media platforms (ranks 1-7). The most prevalent category in the top 50 was “Mainstream or Local News.” For the category “Government or Public Health,” only two information sources were found in the top 50: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at rank 25 and the WHO at rank 27. The first occurrence of a prevalent scientific source was Nature (rank 116). Conclusions The naming of the disease by the WHO was a major signal to address the public audience with public health response via social media platforms such as Twitter. Future studies should focus on the origin and trustworthiness of shared resources, as monitoring the spread of fake news during a pandemic situation is of particular importance. In addition, it would be beneficial to analyze and uncover bot networks spreading COVID-19–related misinformation.

Social Media and Health Communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-32
Author(s):  
Esra Fener
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Health Information ◽  
World Health ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Technology Age ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Media Channels

In today's technology age, our communication style has changed and social media channels that provide remote and mutual interaction on digital platforms have become an important communication tool. In this digital communication age, when the need for remote communication has increased and is needed more with the pandemic period, it is seen that health information is shared more and more on social media platforms. In this process, it is seen that the health ministries of all countries, especially the World Health Organization (WHO), actively use social media channels as well as media channels for sharing health information. In this chapter, basic information about social media, social media channels, health communication, health communication in social media, and the effect of this communication on health literacy will be explained. For this purpose, the relevant social media platforms and studies have been examined and conveyed.

scholarly journals Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modeling of Indonesian Public Conversation about COVID-19 Epidemics on Twitter

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Muhammad Habibi ◽  
Adri Priadana ◽  
Muhammad Rifqi Ma’arif
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Public ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in more than six million confirmed cases and more than 371,000 deaths globally on June 1, 2020. The incident sparked a flood of scientific research to help society deal with the virus, both inside and outside the medical domain. Research related to public health analysis and public conversations about the spread of COVID-19 on social media is one of the highlights of researchers in the world. People can analyze information from social media as supporting data about public health. Analyzing public conversations will help the relevant authorities understand public opinion and information gaps between them and the public, helping them develop appropriate emergency response strategies to address existing problems in the community during the pandemic and provide information on the population's emotions in different contexts. However, research related to the analysis of public health and public conversations was so far conducted only through supervised analysis of textual data. In this study, we aim to analyze specifically the sentiment and topic modeling of Indonesian public conversations about the COVID-19 on Twitter using the NLP technique. We applied some methods to analyze the sentiment to obtain the best classification method. In this study, the topic modeling was carried out unsupervised using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). The results of this study reveal that the most frequently discussed topic related to the COVID-19 pandemic is economic issues.

Discussion, news information, and research sharing on social media at the onset of Covid-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyejin Park ◽  
J. Patrick Biddix ◽  
Han Woo Park
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
World Health ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Statistical Relationships ◽  
Health Organization

Social media platforms provide valuable insights into public conversations. They likewise aid in understanding current issues and events. Twitter has become an important virtual venue where global users hold conversations, share information, and exchange news and research. This study investigates social network structures among Twitter users with regard to the Covid-19 outbreak at its onset and its spread. The data were derived from two Twitter datasets by using a search query, “coronavirus,” on February 28th, 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak was at a relatively early stage. The first dataset is a collection of tweets used in investigating social network structures and for visualization. The second dataset comprises tweets that have citations of scientific research publications regarding coronavirus. The collected data were analyzed to examine numerical indicators of the social network structures, subgroups, influencers, and features regarding research citations. This was also essential to measure the statistical relationships among social elements and research citations. The findings revealed that individuals tend to have conversations with specific people in clusters regarding daily issues on coronavirus without prominent or central voice tweeters. Tweets related to coronavirus were often associated with entertainment, politics, North Korea, and business. During their conversations, the users also responded to and mentioned the U.S. president, the World Health Organization (WHO), celebrities, and news channels. Meanwhile, people shared research articles about the outbreak, including its spread, symptoms related to the disease, and prevention strategies. These findings provide insight into the information sharing behaviors at the onset of the outbreak.

scholarly journals Employing Media Messaging Strategies to Respond to COVID-19 Misinformation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Field ◽  
Gul Saeed ◽  
Mariana Villada Rivera ◽  
Sabrina Campanella ◽  
Lauren Tailor
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
World Health ◽  
Wide Audience ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
Media Messaging ◽  
Health Organization

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed critical gaps in the public’s knowledge of infectious diseases. Experts, including the World Health Organization, acknowledge that an “infodemic” of misinformation is spreading at the same time as the pandemic. Furthermore, 13% of Canadians age 50 and younger reported using social media as their primary source of information about COVID-19. Thus, in January 2020, the Infectious Disease Working Group (IDWG) was formed by a group of students at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. The IDWG’s Media Messaging Team (MMT) uses Knowledge Translation (KT) strategies to increase access to evidence-based information related to public health and COVID-19. Specifically, MMT uses virtual platforms, including Twitter and Instagram (@infectious_info), to disseminate information to a wide audience. Objectives: The MMT aims to produce content to dispel pervasive and harmful myths about COVID-19, raise public awareness, and advocate for health equity. Methods: The team creates 2-4 pieces of original content per week on topics such as Ontario Government legislation updates, myth-busting series, and “Wednesday Series” (summaries of novel research findings). The IDWG employs an equity lens to ensure that the content takes into account the experiences and needs of diverse groups, and that graphics are representative of a diverse audience. Health communication strategies are used to promote audience engagement through compelling and bold content design. Results: The Instagram account has over 4,400 followers, with some posts surpassing 50,000 views. Qualitative feedback from social media followers indicates that this project is addressing an emerging gap in knowledge resulting from unclear messaging from official bodies, the spread of mis/disinformation, and disparities in health literacy levels. Conclusions: The findings can inform the development and implementation of KT strategies to reach a wide audience and increase the uptake of public health information.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document