scholarly journals Cross-Platform Comparative Study of Public Concern on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study Based on Twitter and Weibo

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 6487
Author(s):  
Wen Deng ◽  
Yi Yang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Online Discourse ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Status ◽  
Release Of Information

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global health crisis that has affected economies and societies worldwide. During these times of uncertainty and crisis, people have turned to social media platforms as communication tools and primary information sources. Online discourse is conducted under the influence of many different factors, such as background, culture, politics, etc. However, parallel comparative research studies conducted in different countries to identify similarities and differences in online discourse are still scarce. In this study, we combine the crisis lifecycle and opinion leader concepts and use data mining and a set of predefined search terms (coronavirus and COVID-19) to investigate discourse on Twitter (101,271 tweets) and Sina Weibo (92,037 posts). Then, we use a topic modeling technique, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), to identify the most common issues posted by users and temporal analysis to research the issue’s trend. Social Network Analysis (SNA) allows us to discover the opinion leader on the two different platforms. Finally, we find that online discourse reflects the crisis lifecycle according to the stage of COVID-19 in China and the US. Regarding the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, users of Twitter tend to pay more attention to the economic situation while users of Weibo pay more attention to public health. The issues focused on in online discourse have a strong relationship with the development of the crisis in different countries. Additionally, on the Twitter platform many political actors act as opinion leaders, while on the Weibo platform official media and government accounts control the release of information.

scholarly journals Concerns Expressed by Chinese Social Media Users During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis of Sina Weibo Microblogging Data (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junze Wang ◽  
Ying Zhou ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Richard Evans ◽  
Chengyan Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Web Crawler ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
User Behavior Analysis ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Social Media Platforms

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global health crisis that is affecting economies and societies worldwide. During times of uncertainty and unexpected change, people have turned to social media platforms as communication tools and primary information sources. Platforms such as Twitter and Sina Weibo have allowed communities to share discussion and emotional support; they also play important roles for individuals, governments, and organizations in exchanging information and expressing opinions. However, research that studies the main concerns expressed by social media users during the pandemic is limited. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine the main concerns raised and discussed by citizens on Sina Weibo, the largest social media platform in China, during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS We used a web crawler tool and a set of predefined search terms (<i>New Coronavirus Pneumonia</i>, <i>New Coronavirus</i>, and <i>COVID-19</i>) to investigate concerns raised by Sina Weibo users. Textual information and metadata (number of likes, comments, retweets, publishing time, and publishing location) of microblog posts published between December 1, 2019, and July 32, 2020, were collected. After segmenting the words of the collected text, we used a topic modeling technique, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), to identify the most common topics posted by users. We analyzed the emotional tendencies of the topics, calculated the proportional distribution of the topics, performed user behavior analysis on the topics using data collected from the number of likes, comments, and retweets, and studied the changes in user concerns and differences in participation between citizens living in different regions of mainland China. RESULTS Based on the 203,191 eligible microblog posts collected, we identified 17 topics and grouped them into 8 themes. These topics were pandemic statistics, domestic epidemic, epidemics in other countries worldwide, COVID-19 treatments, medical resources, economic shock, quarantine and investigation, patients’ outcry for help, work and production resumption, psychological influence, joint prevention and control, material donation, epidemics in neighboring countries, vaccine development, fueling and saluting antiepidemic action, detection, and study resumption. The mean sentiment was positive for 11 topics and negative for 6 topics. The topic with the highest mean of retweets was domestic epidemic, while the topic with the highest mean of likes was quarantine and investigation. CONCLUSIONS Concerns expressed by social media users are highly correlated with the evolution of the global pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has provided a platform for Chinese government departments and organizations to better understand public concerns and demands. Similarly, social media has provided channels to disseminate information about epidemic prevention and has influenced public attitudes and behaviors. Government departments, especially those related to health, can create appropriate policies in a timely manner through monitoring social media platforms to guide public opinion and behavior during epidemics.

scholarly journals Online Discourse in the Context of COVID-19, the First Health Crisis in China after the Advent of Mobile Social Media: A Content Analysis of China’s Weibo and Baidu

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Christian Carvajal-Miranda ◽  
Luis Mañas-Viniegra ◽  
Li Liang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Online Discourse ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Investigation Period ◽  
Universal Health

The COVID-19 epidemic was the first universal health crisis since China entered the era of mobile social media. When Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) broke out in 2003, it was not until almost six years later that Weibo was born, marking China’s entry into the era of mobile social media (Weixin 2020). In this context, this research analysed the role of the social media platform Weibo and the Internet search browser Baidu, in a government controlled online media environment, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to undertake this study, we applied the use of content and sentiment analysis to the discourse identified through the topics published during the investigation period, which encompassed 15 December 2019 until 15 March 2020. From the findings of this study, we concluded that, during the pre- and post-COVID-19 period, there was an important presence of social and lifestyle topic categories dominating the online discourse, which dramatically changed in correlation to the increasing spread of the disease. Additionally, there was a marked absence of topics in relation to economic and political information, and there was a notable absence of an official Government “voice” generating topics.

Determinants of the Citizen Engagement Level of Mayors on Twitter

2022 ◽  
pp. 917-930
Author(s):  
İbrahim Hatipoğlu ◽  
Mehmet Zahid Sobaci ◽  
Mehmet Fürkan Korkmaz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Citizen Engagement ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
The Status ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Today, politicians like other political actors use social media to interact with their audiences. In the relevant literature, studies on the use of social media by politicians focus more on how politicians use social media for political communication during the election periods and its impact on the election results. Furthermore, these studies mainly focus on national politicians. Few studies focus on the use of social media during a non-election period by the local politicians, and these studies analyse the purpose of using social media. Therefore, in the relevant literature, there is a need for empirical studies to measure the citizen engagement level of local politicians during the non-election period and analyse its determinants beyond the purpose of using social media. In this context, this study aims to analyse the relationship between some factors and the level of citizen engagement of the mayors on Twitter in Turkey. The findings of the analysis show that there is a relationship between the status of municipalities and the engagement level of mayors.

scholarly journals Evaluating the cohesion of municipalities’ discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Antonio Menuzzo ◽  
André Santanchè ◽  
Luiz Gomes-Jr
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Topic Evolution ◽  
Initial Analysis ◽  
Dirichlet Allocation

Social media has been used as a method to alert and raise awareness among the population to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that the discourse of municipalities and their respective mayors may have an influence on the behavior of the population and thus directly impact COVID-19 outcomes. This paper analyzes the diversity and cohesion of these discourses through posts published on Facebook, evaluating (i) diversity of topics discussed, (ii) topic evolution, and (iii) deviation from a central discourse. We also combine this information with epidemiological data to assess impact in the outcomes. In particular, we present two different Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) models to analyze how topics are being discussed by municipalities/mayors and compare how cohesion is related to the evolution of the pandemic. Our initial analysis suggests that municipalities tend to employ a unified discourse as a response to the worsening of epidemic outcomes. The results of our study could help to inform governments of better communication strategies in this and future health crisis.

Determinants of the Citizen Engagement Level of Mayors on Twitter

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
İbrahim Hatipoğlu ◽  
Mehmet Zahid Sobaci ◽  
Mehmet Fürkan Korkmaz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Citizen Engagement ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
The Status ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Today, politicians like other political actors use social media to interact with their audiences. In the relevant literature, studies on the use of social media by politicians focus more on how politicians use social media for political communication during the election periods and its impact on the election results. Furthermore, these studies mainly focus on national politicians. Few studies focus on the use of social media during a non-election period by the local politicians, and these studies analyse the purpose of using social media. Therefore, in the relevant literature, there is a need for empirical studies to measure the citizen engagement level of local politicians during the non-election period and analyse its determinants beyond the purpose of using social media. In this context, this study aims to analyse the relationship between some factors and the level of citizen engagement of the mayors on Twitter in Turkey. The findings of the analysis show that there is a relationship between the status of municipalities and the engagement level of mayors.

scholarly journals Top Concerns of Tweeters During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Infoveillance Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alaa Abd-Alrazaq ◽  
Dari Alhuwail ◽  
Mowafa Househ ◽  
Mounir Hamdi ◽  
Zubair Shah
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Mean

BACKGROUND The recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is taking a toll on the world’s health care infrastructure as well as the social, economic, and psychological well-being of humanity. Individuals, organizations, and governments are using social media to communicate with each other on a number of issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not much is known about the topics being shared on social media platforms relating to COVID-19. Analyzing such information can help policy makers and health care organizations assess the needs of their stakeholders and address them appropriately. OBJECTIVE This study aims to identify the main topics posted by Twitter users related to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS Leveraging a set of tools (Twitter’s search application programming interface (API), Tweepy Python library, and PostgreSQL database) and using a set of predefined search terms (“corona,” “2019-nCov,” and “COVID-19”), we extracted the text and metadata (number of likes and retweets, and user profile information including the number of followers) of public English language tweets from February 2, 2020, to March 15, 2020. We analyzed the collected tweets using word frequencies of single (unigrams) and double words (bigrams). We leveraged latent Dirichlet allocation for topic modeling to identify topics discussed in the tweets. We also performed sentiment analysis and extracted the mean number of retweets, likes, and followers for each topic and calculated the interaction rate per topic. RESULTS Out of approximately 2.8 million tweets included, 167,073 unique tweets from 160,829 unique users met the inclusion criteria. Our analysis identified 12 topics, which were grouped into four main themes: origin of the virus; its sources; its impact on people, countries, and the economy; and ways of mitigating the risk of infection. The mean sentiment was positive for 10 topics and negative for 2 topics (deaths caused by COVID-19 and increased racism). The mean for tweet topics of account followers ranged from 2722 (increased racism) to 13,413 (economic losses). The highest mean of likes for the tweets was 15.4 (economic loss), while the lowest was 3.94 (travel bans and warnings). CONCLUSIONS Public health crisis response activities on the ground and online are becoming increasingly simultaneous and intertwined. Social media provides an opportunity to directly communicate health information to the public. Health systems should work on building national and international disease detection and surveillance systems through monitoring social media. There is also a need for a more proactive and agile public health presence on social media to combat the spread of fake news.

scholarly journals Concerns Expressed by Chinese Social Media Users During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis of Sina Weibo Microblogging Data

10.2196/22152 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. e22152
Author(s):  
Junze Wang ◽  
Ying Zhou ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Richard Evans ◽  
Chengyan Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Web Crawler ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
User Behavior Analysis ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global health crisis that is affecting economies and societies worldwide. During times of uncertainty and unexpected change, people have turned to social media platforms as communication tools and primary information sources. Platforms such as Twitter and Sina Weibo have allowed communities to share discussion and emotional support; they also play important roles for individuals, governments, and organizations in exchanging information and expressing opinions. However, research that studies the main concerns expressed by social media users during the pandemic is limited. Objective The aim of this study was to examine the main concerns raised and discussed by citizens on Sina Weibo, the largest social media platform in China, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We used a web crawler tool and a set of predefined search terms (New Coronavirus Pneumonia, New Coronavirus, and COVID-19) to investigate concerns raised by Sina Weibo users. Textual information and metadata (number of likes, comments, retweets, publishing time, and publishing location) of microblog posts published between December 1, 2019, and July 32, 2020, were collected. After segmenting the words of the collected text, we used a topic modeling technique, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), to identify the most common topics posted by users. We analyzed the emotional tendencies of the topics, calculated the proportional distribution of the topics, performed user behavior analysis on the topics using data collected from the number of likes, comments, and retweets, and studied the changes in user concerns and differences in participation between citizens living in different regions of mainland China. Results Based on the 203,191 eligible microblog posts collected, we identified 17 topics and grouped them into 8 themes. These topics were pandemic statistics, domestic epidemic, epidemics in other countries worldwide, COVID-19 treatments, medical resources, economic shock, quarantine and investigation, patients’ outcry for help, work and production resumption, psychological influence, joint prevention and control, material donation, epidemics in neighboring countries, vaccine development, fueling and saluting antiepidemic action, detection, and study resumption. The mean sentiment was positive for 11 topics and negative for 6 topics. The topic with the highest mean of retweets was domestic epidemic, while the topic with the highest mean of likes was quarantine and investigation. Conclusions Concerns expressed by social media users are highly correlated with the evolution of the global pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has provided a platform for Chinese government departments and organizations to better understand public concerns and demands. Similarly, social media has provided channels to disseminate information about epidemic prevention and has influenced public attitudes and behaviors. Government departments, especially those related to health, can create appropriate policies in a timely manner through monitoring social media platforms to guide public opinion and behavior during epidemics.

scholarly journals Top Concerns of Tweeters During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Infoveillance Study

10.2196/19016 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. e19016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alaa Abd-Alrazaq ◽  
Dari Alhuwail ◽  
Mowafa Househ ◽  
Mounir Hamdi ◽  
Zubair Shah
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Mean

Background The recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is taking a toll on the world’s health care infrastructure as well as the social, economic, and psychological well-being of humanity. Individuals, organizations, and governments are using social media to communicate with each other on a number of issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not much is known about the topics being shared on social media platforms relating to COVID-19. Analyzing such information can help policy makers and health care organizations assess the needs of their stakeholders and address them appropriately. Objective This study aims to identify the main topics posted by Twitter users related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Leveraging a set of tools (Twitter’s search application programming interface (API), Tweepy Python library, and PostgreSQL database) and using a set of predefined search terms (“corona,” “2019-nCov,” and “COVID-19”), we extracted the text and metadata (number of likes and retweets, and user profile information including the number of followers) of public English language tweets from February 2, 2020, to March 15, 2020. We analyzed the collected tweets using word frequencies of single (unigrams) and double words (bigrams). We leveraged latent Dirichlet allocation for topic modeling to identify topics discussed in the tweets. We also performed sentiment analysis and extracted the mean number of retweets, likes, and followers for each topic and calculated the interaction rate per topic. Results Out of approximately 2.8 million tweets included, 167,073 unique tweets from 160,829 unique users met the inclusion criteria. Our analysis identified 12 topics, which were grouped into four main themes: origin of the virus; its sources; its impact on people, countries, and the economy; and ways of mitigating the risk of infection. The mean sentiment was positive for 10 topics and negative for 2 topics (deaths caused by COVID-19 and increased racism). The mean for tweet topics of account followers ranged from 2722 (increased racism) to 13,413 (economic losses). The highest mean of likes for the tweets was 15.4 (economic loss), while the lowest was 3.94 (travel bans and warnings). Conclusions Public health crisis response activities on the ground and online are becoming increasingly simultaneous and intertwined. Social media provides an opportunity to directly communicate health information to the public. Health systems should work on building national and international disease detection and surveillance systems through monitoring social media. There is also a need for a more proactive and agile public health presence on social media to combat the spread of fake news.

Impact of Social Media on English Language: A Review

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.

scholarly journals “Let’s Go, Baby Forklift!”: Fandom Governance and the Political Power of Cuteness in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110249
Author(s):  
Jamie Wong ◽  
Crystal Lee ◽  
Vesper Keyi Long ◽  
Di Wu ◽  
Graham M. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
The State ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Voluntary Response ◽  
New Development ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hospital Construction ◽  
Novel Strategy

This article describes how the Chinese state borrows from the culture of celebrity fandom to implement a novel strategy of governing that we term “fandom governance.” We illustrate how state-run social media employed fandom governance early in the COVID-19 pandemic when the country was convulsed with anxiety. As the state faced a crisis of confidence, state social media responded with a propagandistic display of state efficacy, broadcasting a round-the-clock livestream of a massive emergency hospital construction project. Chinese internet users playfully embellished imagery from the livestream. They unexpectedly transformed the construction vehicles into cute personified memes, with Baby Forklift and Baby Mud Barfer (a cement mixer) among the most popular. In turn, state social media strategically channeled this playful engagement in politically productive directions by resignifying the personified vehicles as celebrity idols. Combining social media studies with cultural and linguistic anthropology, we offer a processual account of the semiotic mediations involved in turning vehicles into memes, memes into idols, and citizens into fans. We show how, by embedding cute memes within modules of fandom management such as celebrity ranking lists, state social media rendered them artificially vulnerable to a fall in status. Fans, in turn, rallied around to “protect” these cute idols with small but significant acts of digital devotion and care, organizing themselves into fan circles and exhorting each other to vote. In elevating the memes to the status of celebrity idols, state social media thereby created a disposable pantheon of virtual avatars for the state, and consolidated state power by exploiting citizens’ voluntary response to vulnerability. We analyze fandom governance as a new development in the Chinese state’s long history of governing citizens through the management of emotion.

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