Evolution of public sentiments during the COVID-19 pandemic: Case comparisons of India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
May Oo Lwin ◽  
Anita Sheldenkar ◽  
Jiahui Lu ◽  
Peter Johannes Schulz ◽  
Wonsun Shin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
The United States ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Communication Space

BACKGROUND Public sentiments are an important indicator of crisis response, with the need to balance exigency without adding to panic or projecting overconfidence. Given the rapid spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, governments have enacted various nationwide measures against the disease with social media platforms providing the previously unparalleled communication space for the global populations. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine and provide a macro-level narrative of the evolution of public sentiments on social media at national levels, by comparing Twitter data from India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the current pandemic. METHODS Over 67,363,091 million Twitter posts on COVID-19 from 28 January 2020 to 28 April 2021 were analyzed from the five countries with "wuhan", "corona", "nCov", and "covid" as search keywords. Change in sentiments ("very negative", " negative", "neutral or mixed", "positive”, “very positive”) were compared between countries in connection with disease milestones and public health directives. RESULTS Country-specific assessments show that negative sentiments were predominant across all five countries during the initial period of the global pandemic. However, positive sentiments encompassing hope, resilience, and support arose at differing intensities across the five countries, particularly in Asian countries. In the next stage of the pandemic, India, Singapore, and South Korea faced escalating waves of COVID-19 cases, resulting in negative sentiments, but positive sentiments appeared simultaneously. In contrast, while UK and US negative sentiments increased sharply and dramatically after the declaration of a national public emergency, strong parallel positive sentiments were slow to surface. CONCLUSIONS Our findings on sentiments across countries facing similar outbreak concerns suggest potential associations between government response actions both in terms of policy and communications, and public sentiment trends. Overall, a more concerted approach of government crisis communication appears to be associated with more stable public sentiments balanced between positives and negatives over the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spotlight

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-108
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Young People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Text Line ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Crisis Counselors

In the darkest moments of their lives, young people are finding help through the Crisis Text Line (“text HOME to 741741”). 1 Now available in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, the resource provides access to trained crisis counselors who respond to texters around the clock, helping them to move beyond a crisis. Most people learn about the Crisis Text Line through social media....

scholarly journals Evaluating China’s aspirations for cultural soft power in a post-globalisation era

2016 ◽  
Vol 159 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Flew
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Significance ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

‘Soft power’ has been a concept that has generated great political and scholarly interest in China, as it raises the question of how to achieve cultural standing commensurate with the nation’s growing economic significance. But from the perspectives of communication and cultural studies, we can identify limits with both ‘soft power’ as a concept and how it understands culture and communication, and the assumptions made about the capacities of state cultural promotion through media to appeal to global audiences. Drawing upon case studies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, India, Japan and South Korea, this article identified challenges and opportunities for China in growing its international cultural soft power in a ‘post-globalisation’ era.

Right-wing populism, social media and echo chambers in Western democracies

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Boulianne ◽  
Karolina Koc-Michalska ◽  
Bruce Bimber
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Echo Chamber ◽  
Right Wing Populism

Many observers are concerned that echo chamber effects in digital media are contributing to the polarization of publics and, in some places, to the rise of right-wing populism. This study employs survey data collected in France, the United Kingdom and the United States (1500 respondents in each country) from April to May 2017. Overall, we do not find evidence that online/social media explain support for right-wing populist candidates and parties. Instead, in the United States, use of online media decreases support for right-wing populism. Looking specifically at echo chamber measures, we find offline discussion with those who are similar in race, ethnicity and class positively correlates with support for populist candidates and parties in the United Kingdom and France. The findings challenge claims about the role of social media and the rise of populism.

scholarly journals Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Comparison of Strategies in Six Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiqian Chen ◽  
Leiyu Shi ◽  
Yuyao Zhang ◽  
Xiaohan Wang ◽  
Jun Jiao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
South Korea ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
And Control ◽  
Close Contacts

Objective: This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of containment strategies and mitigation strategies to provide a reference for controlling the ongoing global spread of the pandemic.Methods: We extracted publicly available data from various official websites between January 1 and December 31, 2020, summarized the strategies implemented in China, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, and assessed the effectiveness of the prevention and control measures adopted by these countries with the daily new cases and mortality rate per 100,000 population.Results: China, South Korea, and Singapore adopted containment strategies, which maintained a proactive approach by identifying and managing cases, tracking and isolating close contacts. China and Singapore had a similar epidemic curve and the new daily cases. As of December 31, 2020, the new daily cases of China and Singapore were below 100 with the mortality rates per 100,000 population of 0.3 and 0.5, respectively. But the new daily case of South Korea was as high as 1,029, with a mortality rate per 100,000 population of 1.8. In contrast, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France responded with mitigation strategies that focus on treating severe cases and those with underlying conditions. They had similar epidemic curves and mortality rates per 100,000 population. The United States had up to 234,133 new confirmed cases per day, and the mortality rate per 100,000 population was 107, while the United Kingdom had 56,029 new confirmed cases per day and the mortality rate per 100,000 population was 108, and France had 20,042 new cases per day, with a mortality rate per 100,000 population of 99.Conclusions: China, Korea, and Singapore, which implemented strict containment measures, had significant outbreak control. Meanwhile, the successful practices in China, Singapore, and South Korea show that the containment strategies were practices that work especially at the individual level identifying and managing the infected patients and their close contacts. In the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, which implemented the mitigation policies, the effect of epidemic prevention and control was not significant that the epidemic continued or even increased epidemic relatively quickly.

Fighting for recognition: Online abuse of women bloggers in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 1282-1302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stine Eckert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Online Abuse ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

Women who blog about politics or identify as feminist in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States face great risks of online abuse. In-depth interviews with 109 bloggers who write about feminisms, family, and/or maternity politics revealed that 73.4% had negative experiences due to blogging and/or social media use. Most of these negative experiences involved not only abusive comments but also stalking, trolls, rape threats, death threats, and unpleasant offline encounters. Response strategies included moderating comments, exposing abuse, adaptation, and solidarity. I argue that the democratic potential of social media in democracies remains haphazard because online abuse is not fully recognized as entangling online and offline communication, constituted and constructed through technological, legal, social, and cultural factors. Using the theoretical approaches of digital feminisms, I call for more systematic empirical work on global recognition of online abuse as punishable crime.

She belongs in the kitchen, not in Congress? Political engagement and sexism on Twitter

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah Tromble ◽  
Karin Koole
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Female Politicians ◽  
Public Views

Social media offer direct lines of communication to many democratic representatives, and, in some instances, they may provide policy-makers and journalists with a better sense of public views. But, are the voices expressed on social media worth heeding? Impersonal and anonymous communication often invites negativity and abuse, including racism and sexism. Indeed, evidence suggests that women face particularly high levels of abuse online. And yet we know relatively little about the role of sexism in citizens’ digitally mediated interactions with their political representatives. Do people direct more criticism and hostility towards female politicians? Using Twitter data comparing political engagement in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, we actually find reason for optimism. In the United Kingdom and the United States, there are no differences in the tone of messages sent to male and female politicians, and Dutch citizens direct more positive messages towards women. Across all three countries, gendered insults towards women are rare.

Public Beliefs about Falsehoods in News

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Koc-Michalska ◽  
Bruce Bimber ◽  
Daniel Gomez ◽  
Matthew Jenkins ◽  
Shelley Boulianne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Beliefs ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Right ◽  
News Use

The circulation of misinformation, lies, propaganda, and other kinds of falsehood has, to varying degrees, become a challenge to democratic publics. We are interested in the question of what publics believe about their own exposure to falsehoods in news, and about what contributes to similarities and differences in these beliefs across countries. We are also interested in the question of whether publics report attempting to verify news that is suspect to them. Here we report on a comparative election survey in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. We find three key predictors of publics’ beliefs that they have been exposed to falsehoods: discussion of news, use of social media for political purposes, and exposure to counter-attitudinal information. The nexus between these three predictors and beliefs about falsehoods exists in all three countries, as we anticipate that it likely exists elsewhere. We do not find voters on the right to be different from those on the left in the United Kingdom and France, but do find a substantial difference in the United States, which is likely due to the 2016 Trump campaign. We conclude with concerns about the imbalance in beliefs about exposure to falsehoods in the United States and the apparent capacity of a single leader, in the right context, to shape public beliefs about what is to be believed.

Selective Avoidance on Social Media: A Comparative Study of Western Democracies

2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932110054
Author(s):  
Marko M. Skoric ◽  
Qinfeng Zhu ◽  
Karolina Koc-Michalska ◽  
Shelley Boulianne ◽  
Bruce Bimber
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
The United States ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Avoidance Behaviors ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Western Democracies

This study examines the phenomena of political unfriending and content removal on social media in three Western democracies—France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We seek to understand the role of crosscutting discussion, confrontational discussion style, and ideological extremity in triggering unfriending and content removal on social media, while shedding light on cross-country differences. The findings show that selective avoidance behaviors are much more common in the United States than either in France or the United Kingdom. They also show that crosscutting discussion and confrontational style are the predictors of selective avoidance across all the above countries, while ideological extremity plays a role in the United States only. We suggest that while social media provide opportunities for citizens to engage in discussions with people with dissimilar political views and socioeconomic backgrounds, they also allow them to easily reestablish more homophilous environments via content removal and tie dissolution.

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