Social media bots as active disseminators of COVID-19 news (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Al-Rawi ◽  
Vishal Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Breaking News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Credible Information ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Standard Terms ◽  
Official Sources

BACKGROUND In this study, we examined the activities of automated social media accounts or bots that tweet or retweet referencing #COVID-19 and #COVID19. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to identify bot accounts to understand the nature of messages sent by them on COVID-19. Social media bots have been widely discussed in academic literature as some kind of moral panic mostly in relation to spreading controversial and politically polarized messages or in connection to problematic health bots (Broniatowski et al., 2018; Allem & Ferrara, 2018). The findings of this study, however, show that bots that reference COVID-19 mostly mention mainstream media and credible health sources while spreading breaking news on the pandemic or urging people to stay at home. These results align with previous research on the possible benefits, advantages, or possibilities afforded by the use of health chatbots (Brandtzaeg & Følstad, 2018; Skjuve & Brandtzæg, 2018; Kretzschmar et al., 2019; Greer et al., 2019). METHODS We used a mixed approach mostly comprised of several digital methods in this study. First, we collected 50,811,299 tweets and retweets referencing #COVID-19 and #COVID19 for a period of over two months from February 12 until April 18, 2020. We focused on these two hashtags because they are standard terms used by WHO and other official sources. From a total sample of over 50 million tweets, we used a mixed method to extract more than 185,000 messages posted by 127 bots. RESULTS Unlike the literature on health bots that associate them with anti-social activities, our findings show that the majority of these bots tweet, retweet and mention mainstream media outlets and credible official sources, promote health protection and telemedicine, and disseminate breaking news on the number of casualties and deaths caused by COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS Despite that some literature on social media bots highlight the controversial and anti-social nature of automated accounts, the findings of this study show that the majority of bots spread news on and awareness of COVID-19 risks while citing and referencing mainstream media outlets and credible health sources. We argue that there might be financial incentives behind designing some of these bots. However and if monitored and updated with credible information by health agencies themselves, we believe that bots can be useful during health crises due to their efficiency and speed in spreading valuable information, some of which is crucial for public health. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

scholarly journals Bots as Active News Promoters: A Digital Analysis of COVID-19 Tweets

Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Al-Rawi ◽  
Vishal Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Health Protection ◽  
Digital Analysis ◽  
Breaking News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Survival Skills

In this study, we examined the activities of automated social media accounts or bots that tweet or retweet referencing #COVID-19 and #COVID19. From a total sample of over 50 million tweets, we used a mixed method to extract more than 185,000 messages posted by 127 bots. Our findings show that the majority of these bots tweet, retweet and mention mainstream media outlets, promote health protection and telemedicine, and disseminate breaking news on the number of casualties and deaths caused by COVID-19. We argue that some of these bots are motivated by financial incentives, while other bots actively support the survivalist movement by emphasizing the need to prepare for the pandemic and learn survival skills. We only found a few bots that showed some suspicious activity probably due to the fact that our dataset was limited to two hashtags often used by official health bodies and academic communities.

scholarly journals Marginalizing the Mainstream: How Social Media Privilege Political Information

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Web Search ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Cross Platform ◽  
Data Journalism ◽  
Run Up ◽  
Official Sources

The following reports on research undertaken concerning the “misinformation problem” on social media during the run-up to the U.S. presidential elections in 2020. Employing techniques borrowed from data journalism, it develops a form of cross-platform analysis that is attuned to both commensurability as well as platform specificity. It analyses the most engaged-with or top-ranked political content on seven online platforms: TikTok, 4chan, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google Web Search. Discussing the extent to which social media platforms marginalize mainstream media and mainstream the fringe, the analyses found that TikTok parodies mainstream media, 4chan and Reddit dismiss it and direct users to alternative influencer networks and extreme YouTube content. Twitter prefers the hyperpartisan over it. Facebook’s “fake news” problem also concerns declining amounts of mainstream media referenced. Instagram has influencers (rather than, say, experts) dominating user engagement. By comparison, Google Web Search buoys the liberal mainstream (and sinks conservative sites), but generally gives special interest sources, as they were termed in the study, the privilege to provide information rather than official sources. The piece concludes with a discussion of source and “platform criticism”, concerning how online platforms are seeking to filter the content that is posted or found there through increasing editorial intervention. These “editorial epistemologies”, applied especially around COVID-19 keywords, are part of an expansion of so-called content moderation to what I call “serious queries”, or keywords that return official information. Other epistemological strategies for editorially moderating the misinformation problem are also treated.

scholarly journals I AM THE VIRUS: DIGITAL STORYTELLING AND FICTIONAL TWITTER ACCOUNTS IN THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS IN SPAIN

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoni Roig ◽  
Sandra Martorell
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Breaking News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
Twitter Account ◽  
Collective Empowerment

The purpose of this work is to understand the role of digital storytelling as a conversation asset regarding social and health emergencies, specifically fictional parody characters in social media, as chroniclers of ongoing crises. We will focus on a strikingly popular phenomenon: the Twitter account @coronavid19, where the virus, presented as a fictional character, offers a humorous chronicle in almost real time through social media, from the early breaking news related to the presence of the virus in the country to the unfolding of an unprecedented social and health crisis. The account got more than 450,000 followers in its first week of existence, coinciding with the first confirmed Covid19 cases in mainland Spain (February 2020) and was widely covered by mainstream media. It currently has more than 860.000 followers, which is way higher than official health and governmental Twitter accounts. This paradigmatic case study has been chosen considering its impact from the early stages of the pandemic, but also its peculiarities as a fictional character and a privileged chronicler in the first person. Our case analysis is aimed to understand how fictional parody characters are built in discursive and extra-discursive terms, how they interact with followers and how narrative and character traits evolve along the crisis. We also want to observe whether they add nuances to social discussion, reframe news content (emphasizing or downplaying events) and serve as a tool to cope with hard times, fostering collective empowerment, mutual empathy, while stressing official recommendations using irony and mocking irrational behaviour.

scholarly journals Quantifying Media Effects, Its Content, and Role in Promoting Community Awareness of Chikungunya Epidemic in Bangladesh

Epidemiologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-94
Author(s):  
Mst. Marium Begum ◽  
Osman Ulvi ◽  
Ajlina Karamehic-Muratovic ◽  
Mallory R. Walsh ◽  
Hasan Tarek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Media Outlet ◽  
And Control

Background: Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease, mostly present in tropical and subtropical regions. The virus is spread by Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitos and symptoms include high fever to severe joint pain. Dhaka, Bangladesh, suffered an outbreak of chikungunya in 2017 lasting from April to September. With the goal of reducing cases, social media was at the forefront during this outbreak and educated the public about symptoms, prevention, and control of the virus. Popular web-based sources such as the top dailies in Bangladesh, local news outlets, and Facebook spread awareness of the outbreak. Objective: This study sought to investigate the role of social and mainstream media during the chikungunya epidemic. The study objective was to determine if social media can improve awareness of and practice associated with reducing cases of chikungunya. Methods: We collected chikungunya-related information circulated from the top nine television channels in Dhaka, Bangladesh, airing from 1st April–20th August 2017. All the news published in the top six dailies in Bangladesh were also compiled. The 50 most viewed chikungunya-related Bengali videos were manually coded and analyzed. Other social media outlets, such as Facebook, were also analyzed to determine the number of chikungunya-related posts and responses to these posts. Results: Our study showed that media outlets were associated with reducing cases of chikungunya, indicating that media has the potential to impact future outbreaks of these alpha viruses. Each media outlet (e.g., web, television) had an impact on the human response to an individual’s healthcare during this outbreak. Conclusions: To prevent future outbreaks of chikungunya, media outlets and social media can be used to educate the public regarding prevention strategies such as encouraging safe travel, removing stagnant water sources, and assisting with tracking cases globally to determine where future outbreaks may occur.

Novel interfaces in science communication: Comparing journalistic and social media uptake of articles published by The Conversation Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252110193
Author(s):  
Lars Guenther ◽  
Marina Joubert
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Public Science ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Agenda Setter ◽  
Or Economics ◽  
Media Ecosystem

Science amplifier platforms such as The Conversation have gained popularity in a changing media ecosystem in which the traditional roles of journalists are eroded, and scientists are urged to engage with society. The Conversation constitutes a blend of scientific communication, public science communication and science journalism, and a convergence of the professional worlds of science and journalism. In this study, we investigated the nature and impact of the Africa-focussed edition of this platform, The Conversation Africa. We analysed articles published over a 5-year period since its launch in 2015 ( N = 5392). Contents from South Africa dominate the platform, but contributions from other African countries are increasing. Regarding the role of The Conversation Africa as an inter-media agenda setter, mainstream media more often republished stories related to politics or economics, while stories about social issues such as education, conservation and art were more often shared on social media.

Infobotting COVID-19: A case study of Ask Nameesa in Egypt

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Khattab
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Interactive Engagement ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Credible Information ◽  
Public Demand

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation and unscientific interpretations flooded the internet. Seeking credible information in Egypt was paramount at the time. An answer to this quest was ‘Ask Nameesa’, an award-winning Egyptian-focused chatbot that utilizes Facebook Messenger to communicate with social media users in an individualized response engagement. It relies on information validated by WHO and the Egyptian Ministry of Health. This article examines the structure of Ask Nameesa as an example of infobots and studies the interactive engagement it offers users to provide health information. The study analyses data gathered by interviewing the founder and CEO of DXwand, the company that developed Ask Nameesa as well as content analysis of conversations with Ask Nameesa to assess its user engagement. The study aims at understanding the potential Ask Nameesa has in providing information literacy and tackling public demand for information.

What the fake? Assessing the extent of networked political spamming and bots in the propagation of #fakenews on Twitter

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Al-Rawi ◽  
Jacob Groshek ◽  
Li Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
News Discourse ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
One Year

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine one of the largest data sets on the hashtag use of #fakenews that comprises over 14m tweets sent by more than 2.4m users.Design/methodology/approachTweets referencing the hashtag (#fakenews) were collected for a period of over one year from January 3 to May 7 of 2018. Bot detection tools were employed, and the most retweeted posts, most mentions and most hashtags as well as the top 50 most active users in terms of the frequency of their tweets were analyzed.FindingsThe majority of the top 50 Twitter users are more likely to be automated bots, while certain users’ posts like that are sent by President Donald Trump dominate the most retweeted posts that always associate mainstream media with fake news. The most used words and hashtags show that major news organizations are frequently referenced with a focus on CNN that is often mentioned in negative ways.Research limitations/implicationsThe research study is limited to the examination of Twitter data, while ethnographic methods like interviews or surveys are further needed to complement these findings. Though the data reported here do not prove direct effects, the implications of the research provide a vital framework for assessing and diagnosing the networked spammers and main actors that have been pivotal in shaping discourses around fake news on social media. These discourses, which are sometimes assisted by bots, can create a potential influence on audiences and their trust in mainstream media and understanding of what fake news is.Originality/valueThis paper offers results on one of the first empirical research studies on the propagation of fake news discourse on social media by shedding light on the most active Twitter users who discuss and mention the term “#fakenews” in connection to other news organizations, parties and related figures.

Homicide and media: ‘realities’ and ‘representations’

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Yardley
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mainstream Media

This chapter considers existing criminological insights into homicide and identifies the key themes and perspectives that emerge at the intersection of homicide and mainstream media. We might think of perpetrators like Derek Medina, Randy Janzen and Amanda Taylor as aberrations who are fundamentally different from the rest of us, or make sense of their social media posts in relation to the crimes they committed as simply another manifestation of their transgression. However, all three individuals have lived out their lives in the same world as us. Before they were killers — and indeed afterwards — they were ‘prosumers’ of mediated representations of homicide, as we all are. The chapter first addresses questions of definition, scale and nature before examining how the field of criminology has made sense of homicide in media in terms of what emerges as important and what is missing from such analyses.

scholarly journals The Influence of YouTube Beauty Vloggers on Indonesian Consumers’ Purchase Intention of Local Cosmetic Products

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Jui-Lung Chen ◽  
Apritika Dermawan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Purchase Intention ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Marketing Tool ◽  
Willingness To Purchase ◽  
The Impact

Social media are web-based technology and social platform that involve social, personal and technological factors, which have triggered the development and evolution of website-based communities. Moreover, relevant web-based applications have also become the mainstream media for value creation and information exchange. The proliferation, convenience, and immediacy of social media have attracted many enterprises to adopt social media as a marketing tool. Among them, Electronic Word-of-Mouth (E-WoM), used mostly by vloggers (video bloggers), enables its users to review products and express their opinions on social media. Therefore, E-WoM has gradually become an important source of information for consumers, which influences their purchasing decisions. YouTube, a video sharing platform affiliated with Google, is a popular social media with tons of users. One of its most appealing and popular communities is Beauty Blogger, where beauty vloggers create and upload videos about beauty products. This study explored the impact of YouTube beauty vlogger on the attitude of Indonesian women towards locally made cosmetics and their willingness to purchase them. Based on the research results, relevant conclusions and recommendations were proposed which can be used as a reference for future research and practical applications.

scholarly journals Masters of Wine on Twitter: presence, activity, impact and community structure

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
Enrique Orduña-Malea ◽  
Cristina I. Font-Julian ◽  
José Antonio Ontalba-Ruipérez ◽  
Raúl Compés-López
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Community Structure ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Wine Industry ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The World ◽  
Credible Information ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Way

Globalisation, the Internet and social media have changed the kind of actors with influence in the wine industry and the way these actors create signals to communicate credible information about experience and trust attributes. Among the most prestigious experts in the world of wine are the Masters of Wine (MW). Although initially devoted to international trade, they have spread their activities and their opinion is more and more appreciated by producers and consumers. The main objective of this article is to determine this community of experts’ behaviour on Twitter. In order to do so, four factors (presence, activity, impact and community) have been considered. All Twitter profiles belonging to users awarded with the MW qualification were identified and analysed. In addition, a set of 35,653 tweets published by the MWs were retrieved and analysed through descriptive statistics. The results show MWs on Twitter as high attractors (number of followers), moderate publishers (original contents published), moderate influencers (number of likes and retweets), and low interactors (number of friends and mentions to other users). These findings reveal that the MW community is not using Twitter to gain or reinforce their reputation as an accredited expert in the wine industry, giving more influential space on Twitter to consumers and amateurs.

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