Understanding Citizen Reactions and Ebola-Related Information Propagation on Social Media

In severe outbreaks such as Ebola, bird flu and SARS, people share news, and their thoughts and responses regarding the outbreaks on social media. Understanding how people perceive the severe outbreaks, what their responses are, and what factors affect these responses become important. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive study of understanding and mining the spread of Ebola-related information on social media. In particular, we (i) conduct a large-scale data-driven analysis of geotagged social media messages to understand citizen reactions regarding Ebola; (ii) build information propagation models which measure locality of information; and (iii) analyze spatial, temporal and social properties of Ebola-related information. Our work provides new insights into Ebola outbreak by understanding citizen reactions and topic-based information propagation, as well as providing a foundation for analysis and response of future public health crises.Comment: 2016 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2016

How Misinformation and Mistrust Compound the Threat of Epidemics

This thesis was conducted to study the effects of misinformation and medical mistrust on the public health field. I use the events of the Chapare Virus outbreak in Bolivia in the summer of 2019 and the public dialogue during that time period to discuss these themes. I used data from market survey\u27s in La Paz, newspaper articles from Página Siete, and Tweets from the time period of the outbreak. My findings suggest that misinformation and medical mistrust affected public health measures, which has major implications for the way the public health field should address future public health events

Public trust in health authorities: Examining Twitter comments on CDC and Fauci during Covid-19

The purpose of the study is to examine public trust in health authorities during COVID-19 and whether individuals\u27 trust in health authorities is influenced by inconsistent health messages. Considering the origin of public trust in the public sphere, the study focuses on the online form of the public sphere- Twitter. As many studies in health communication have implemented large-scale approaches to investigate Twitter data, this study offers a qualitative analysis by conducting a close reading of tweets that mention the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Dr. Anthony Fauci. The results of this research suggest that inconsistency in health guidance and information may potentially hinder public trust in health authorities. Specifically, inconsistency in numbers of COVID-19 metrics may significantly influence individual perceptions of the trustworthiness of health authorities. The rhetorical implications of research findings also suggest that existing partisan divides and general concerns in science may also shape how the public fails to trust during the COVID-19 pandemic

Rising Above Misinformation or Fake News in Africa: Another Strategy to Control COVID-19 Spread

Ahinkorah BO, Ameyaw EK, Hagan Jr. JE, Seidu A-A, Schack T. Rising Above Misinformation or Fake News in Africa: Another Strategy to Control COVID-19 Spread. Frontiers in Communication. 2020;5:1-5.Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic is gradually gaining much popularity and amplifying the threat facing humanity about the continuous spread of the virus regardless of one's location. Although some of the influx of these falsehoods may be harmless, others might pose a serious threat by misleading the general population to depend on unjustified and/unsubstantiated claims for protection and show preference for them against scientifically proven guidelines. This paper provides a clear understanding on some COVID-19 misinformation, the inherent implications this poses to public health in Africa and highlights the potential strategies to curb this trend

European leaders unmasked: Covid-19 communication strategy through Twitter

[EN] The coronavirus disease Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is exacting a huge toll on individuals, families, communities, and societies across the world. The study of public communication is a key aspect for slowing the spread of the virus and therefore reducing the death rate. This article analyses political leaders' crisis communication during the Covid-19 pandemic of the most affected European countries, Boris Johnson (United Kingdom), Emmanuel Macron (France), Pedro Sanchez (Spain) and Giuseppe Conte (Italy), in addition to Tedros Adhanom as a representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Ursula Von der Leyen President of the European Union (EU). The study focuses on the visual information (images and videos) published in their Twitter profiles, with the aim of highlighting the strategies of recommendations by health authorities during the first 40 days of the pandemic. After analysis of the visual content of 634 tweets, the results show significant differences amongst the preventative measures recommended (social distancing, use of masks, hand washing, etc.) and the public image projected by the leaders in their Twitter profiles.This research was supported by the national R&D project Estrategias, agendas y discursos en las cibercampanas electorales: medios de comunicacion y ciudadanos (CSO2016-77331-C2-1-R), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for 2017-2020Drylie-Carey, L.; Sánchez-Castillo, S.; Galán Cubillo, E. (2020). European leaders unmasked: Covid-19 communication strategy through Twitter. El profesional de la información. 29(5):1-15. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.sep.0411529

Infecting the Body Politic: Observations on Health Security and the “Undesirable” Immigrant

This is the published version

\u3ci\u3eThe New York Times\u3c/i\u3e and Media Framing During the Coronavirus Pandemic

This study analyzes how The New York Times framed the coronavirus pandemic via Twitter. Using framing theory, this study examines a collection of tweets from The New York Times Twitter account during the week of March 13-20, 2020, which was the week following President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency. Each tweet was manually cataloged according to a specific set of qualifying keywords. From the collected tweets, this study identified four dominant frames that characterized The New York Times’ coverage of the pandemic during the week of March 13, 2020. This study also discusses the structure of the “disease narrative” and the rise of Twitter as a legitimate source for news

The United States confronts Ebola: Suasion, executive action, and fragmentation

Forthcoming in the Cambridge University Press journal Health Economics, Policy, and Law. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=HEPThe United States’ experience with the Ebola virus in 2014 provides a window into US public health politics. First, the US provided a case study in the role of suasion and executive action in the management of public health in a fragmented multi-level system. The variable capacity of different parts of the US to respond to Ebola on the level of hospitals or state governments, and their different approaches, show the limitations of federal influence, the importance of knowledge and executive energy, and the diversity of both powerful actors and sources of power. Second, the politics of Ebola in the US is a case study in the politics of partisan blame attribution. The outbreak struck in the run-up to an election that was likely to be good for the Republican party, and the election dominated interest in and opinions of Ebola in both the media and public opinion. Democratic voters and media downplayed Ebola while Republican voters and media focused on the outbreak. The media was a key conduit for this strategic politicization, as shown in the quantity, timing, and framing of news about Ebola. Neither fragmentation nor partisanship appears to be going away, so understanding the politics of public health crises will remain important.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/120415/3/Ebola as accepted for posting clean.pd

Framing COVID-19: How we conceptualize and discuss the pandemic on Twitter

Doctors and nurses in these weeks are busy in the trenches, fighting against a new invisible enemy: Covid-19. Cities are locked down and civilians are besieged in their own homes, to prevent the spreading of the virus. War-related terminology is commonly used to frame the discourse around epidemics and diseases. Arguably the discourse around the current epidemic will make use of war-related metaphors too,not only in public discourse and the media, but also in the tweets written by non-experts of mass communication. We hereby present an analysis of the discourse around #Covid-19, based on a corpus of 200k tweets posted on Twitter during March and April 2020. Using topic modelling we first analyze the topics around which the discourse can be classified. Then, we show that the WAR framing is used to talk about specific topics, such as the virus treatment, but not others, such as the effects of social distancing on the population. We then measure and compare the popularity of the WAR frame to three alternative figurative frames (MONSTER, STORM and TSUNAMI) and a literal frame used as control (FAMILY). The results show that while the FAMILY literal frame covers a wider portion of the corpus, among the figurative framings WAR is the most frequently used, and thus arguably the most conventional one. However, we conclude, this frame is not apt to elaborate the discourse around many aspects involved in the current situation. Therefore, we conclude, in line with previous suggestions, a plethora of framing options, or a metaphor menu, may facilitate the communication of various aspects involved in the Covid-19-related discourse on the social media, and thus support civilians in the expression of their feelings, opinions and ideas during the current pandemic.Comment: 41 pages, 6 figure

Amplification of perceived risk among users of a national travel health Web site during the 2013-2016 West African Ebola virus outbreak.

Timely outbreak information was paramount to public health bodies issuing travel advisories during the 2013-2016 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak. This article explores the potential for a syndromic system/Shewhart control chart based on the online interaction with a national travel health Web site in comparison with searches on the Google UK search engine. The study showed an amplification of perceived risk among users of a national travel health Web site months before the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and the initial surge in public interest on Google UK in August 2014