scholarly journals Social media as a big public health data source: review of the international bibliography

Author(s):  
Evika Karamagioli

Background: As the use of social media creates huge amounts of data, the need for big data analysis has to synthesize the information and determine which actions is generated. Online communication channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc provide a wealth of passively collected data that may be mined for public health purposes such as health surveillance, health crisis management, and last but not least health promotion and education. Objective: We explore international bibliography on the potential role and perceptive of use for social media as a big data source for public health purposes. Method: Systematic literature review. Data extraction and synthesis was performed with the use of thematic analysis. Results: Examples of those currently collecting and analyzing big data from generated social content include scientists who are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track the spread of flu by analyzing what user searches, and the World Health Organization is working on disaster management relief. But what exactly do we do with this big social media data? We can track real-time trends and understand them quicker through the platforms and processing services. By processing this big social media data, it is possible to determine specific patterns in conversation topics, users behaviors, overall trends and influencers, sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle behaviors, and social and cultural constructs. Conclusion: The key to fostering big data and social media converge is process and analyze the right data that may be mined for purposes of public health, so as to provide strategic insights for planning, execution and measurement of effective and efficient public health interventions. In this effort, political, economic and legal obstacles need to be seriously considered.

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evika Karamagioli

Background: As the use of social media creates huge amounts of data, the need for big data analysis has to synthesize the information and determine which actions is generated. Online communication channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc provide a wealth of passively collected data that may be mined for public health purposes such as health surveillance, health crisis management, and last but not least health promotion and education. Objective: We explore international bibliography on the potential role and perceptive of use for social media as a big data source for public health purposes. Method: Systematic literature review. Data extraction and synthesis was performed with the use of thematic analysis. Results: Examples of those currently collecting and analyzing big data from generated social content include scientists who are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track the spread of flu by analyzing what user searches, and the World Health Organization is working on disaster management relief. But what exactly do we do with this big social media data? We can track real-time trends and understand them quicker through the platforms and processing services. By processing this big social media data, it is possible to determine specific patterns in conversation topics, users behaviors, overall trends and influencers, sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle behaviors, and social and cultural constructs. Conclusion: The key to fostering big data and social media converge is process and analyze the right data that may be mined for purposes of public health, so as to provide strategic insights for planning, execution and measurement of effective and efficient public health interventions. In this effort, political, economic and legal obstacles need to be seriously considered.


Author(s):  
Philip Habel ◽  
Yannis Theocharis

In the last decade, big data, and social media in particular, have seen increased popularity among citizens, organizations, politicians, and other elites—which in turn has created new and promising avenues for scholars studying long-standing questions of communication flows and influence. Studies of social media play a prominent role in our evolving understanding of the supply and demand sides of the political process, including the novel strategies adopted by elites to persuade and mobilize publics, as well as the ways in which citizens react, interact with elites and others, and utilize platforms to persuade audiences. While recognizing some challenges, this chapter speaks to the myriad of opportunities that social media data afford for evaluating questions of mobilization and persuasion, ultimately bringing us closer to a more complete understanding Lasswell’s (1948) famous maxim: “who, says what, in which channel, to whom, [and] with what effect.”


2018 ◽  
Vol 03 (03) ◽  
pp. 1850003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared Oliverio

Big Data is a very popular term today. Everywhere you turn companies and organizations are talking about their Big Data solutions and Analytic applications. The source of the data used in these applications varies. However, one type of data is of great interest to most organizations, Social Media Data. Social Media applications are used by a large percentage of the world’s population. The ability to instantly connect and reach other people and companies over distributed distances is an important part of today’s society. Social Media applications allow users to share comments, opinions, ideas, and media with friends, family, businesses, and organizations. The data contained in these comments, ideas, and media are valuable to many types of organizations. Through Data Mining and Analysis, it is possible to predict specific behavior in users of the applications. Currently, several technologies aid in collecting, analyzing, and displaying this data. These technologies allow users to apply this data to solve different problems, in different organizations, including the finance, medicine, environmental, education, and advertising industries. This paper aims to highlight the current technologies used in Data Mining and Analyzing Social Media data, the industries using this data, as well as the future of this field.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 205395171880773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Cooky ◽  
Jasmine R Linabary ◽  
Danielle J Corple

Social media offers an attractive site for Big Data research. Access to big social media data, however, is controlled by companies that privilege corporate, governmental, and private research firms. Additionally, Institutional Review Boards’ regulative practices and slow adaptation to emerging ethical dilemmas in online contexts creates challenges for Big Data researchers. We examine these challenges in the context of a feminist qualitative Big Data analysis of the hashtag event #WhyIStayed. We argue power, context, and subjugated knowledges must each be central considerations in conducting Big Data social media research. In doing so, this paper offers a feminist practice of holistic reflexivity in order to help social media researchers navigate and negotiate this terrain.


Author(s):  
Mohamad Hasan

This paper presents a model to collect, save, geocode, and analyze social media data. The model is used to collect and process the social media data concerned with the ISIS terrorist group (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), and to map the areas in Syria most affected by ISIS accordingly to the social media data. Mapping process is assumed automated compilation of a density map for the geocoded tweets. Data mined from social media (e.g., Twitter and Facebook) is recognized as dynamic and easily accessible resources that can be used as a data source in spatial analysis and geographical information system. Social media data can be represented as a topic data and geocoding data basing on the text of the mined from social media and processed using Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods. NLP is a subdomain of artificial intelligence concerned with the programming computers to analyze natural human language and texts. NLP allows identifying words used as an initial data by developed geocoding algorithm. In this study, identifying the needed words using NLP was done using two corpora. First corpus contained the names of populated places in Syria. The second corpus was composed in result of statistical analysis of the number of tweets and picking the words that have a location meaning (i.e., schools, temples, etc.). After identifying the words, the algorithm used Google Maps geocoding API in order to obtain the coordinates for posts.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Mellon

This chapter discusses the use of large quantities of incidentallycollected data (ICD) to make inferences about politics. This type of datais sometimes referred to as “big data” but I avoid this term because of itsconflicting definitions (Monroe, 2012; Ward & Barker, 2013). ICD is datathat was created or collected primarily for a purpose other than analysis.Within this broad definition, this chapter focuses particularly on datagenerated through user interactions with websites. While ICD has beenaround for at least half a century, the Internet greatly expanded theavailability and reduced the cost of ICD. Examples of ICD include data onInternet searches, social media data, and user data from civic platforms.This chapter briefly explains some sources and uses of ICD and thendiscusses some of the potential issues of analysis and interpretation thatarise when using ICD, including the different approaches to inference thatresearchers can use.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengjun Tian ◽  
Yang Yang ◽  
Zhenxing Mao ◽  
Wenyue Tang

Purpose This paper aims to compare the forecasting performance of different models with and without big data predictors from search engines and social media. Design/methodology/approach Using daily tourist arrival data to Mount Longhu, China in 2018 and 2019, the authors estimated ARMA, ARMAX, Markov-switching auto-regression (MSAR), lasso model, elastic net model and post-lasso and post-elastic net models to conduct one- to seven-days-ahead forecasting. Search engine data and social media data from WeChat, Douyin and Weibo were incorporated to improve forecasting accuracy. Findings Results show that search engine data can substantially reduce forecasting error, whereas social media data has very limited value. Compared to the ARMAX/MSAR model without big data predictors, the corresponding post-lasso model reduced forecasting error by 39.29% based on mean square percentage error, 33.95% based on root mean square percentage error, 46.96% based on root mean squared error and 45.67% based on mean absolute scaled error. Practical implications Results highlight the importance of incorporating big data predictors into daily demand forecasting for tourism attractions. Originality/value This study represents a pioneering attempt to apply the regularized regression (e.g. lasso model and elastic net) in tourism forecasting and to explore various daily big data indicators across platforms as predictors.


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