The widespread transmission of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic on social media has become a severe concern for various reasons such as containing the spread of the virus, taking preventive measures, and so on. According to the recent studies, misinformation and conspiracy theories spread on social media have hampered efforts to limit the infection, which has been exacerbated in some instances by politicians and celebrities. Misunderstandings about COVID-19 and wearing a mask sparked much debate. As time went on, a sizable portion of the population continued to refuse to wear masks, owing to extrinsic considerations, such as politics, ideology, personal views, and health concerns. In this study, we look at the concerns surrounding three Twitter hashtags (#masks, #maskup, and #maskoff) in order to understand better how social noise can lead to unintended misinformation. Sentiment analysis, topic modelling, and contextual analysis were used to compare and contrast two datasets relevant to these hashtags, one gathered in 2020 and the other in 2021. According to sentiment analysis, people’s emotions differed between hashtags, and the majority of tweets were based on social media users’ personal opinions. Topic modelling results revealed the prevalence of social noise leading to the unintended spread of misinformation on Twitter. The content analysis results show that while the #maskoff hashtag is used to resist masking influenced by factors, such as misinformation, conspiracy theories, and ideology, the #masks and #maskup hashtags were generally positive and used more to raise awareness of the benefits of wearing masks.
Social media has become a platform for information diffusion, voicing concerns of existing inequalities and raising public awareness of various social and societal issues. Despite the social good, social media has become a fertile ground for spreading misinformation, hate speech and conspiracy theories. The death of George Floyd in May 2020 triggered a series of protests worldwide in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and triggered a debate about equity, inclusion and social justice. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of misinformation and social noise on the original intended message of BLM using data from the Twitter hashtag ‘BLM’. Results from topic modelling have shown the strong presence of misinformation and social noise. Such information was most probably intended to influence, mislead and dilute the original intended message. However, despite the effort to distort the original message of BLM, results from sentiment analysis show that users’ opinions of the BLM movement remained positive.
There is still a great deal of vaccination hesitancy among different populations in the U.S. including health workers, government officials, minorities and marginalized communities. The politicization of the COVID-19 issue made it difficult to contain the infection and led to an increase in the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories on the internet and social media. Misinformation about COVID-19 and its vaccine hindered efforts to fight the disease and continue to impact measures to contain the pandemic. In this paper, we examine the factors impacting vaccine hesitancy and acceptance in the United States. Data collected from CDC website and Twitter hashtags, #COVIDvaccines was analyzed, and the results have shown that vaccine hesitancy is largely influenced by personal opinion rather than scientific knowledge. Safety and side effect was the major impacting factor followed by misinformation and conspiracy theories. ALISE RESEARCH TAXONOMY TOPICS big data; data visualization; information literacy; information use; social media. AUTHOR KEYWORDS COVID-19 vaccine; misinformation; conspiracy theory; fake news; vaccine hesitancy.
A competência cultural se refere à capacidade de se comunicar e interagir com pessoas de diferentes culturas, ao mesmo tempo que reconhece a existência de preconceitos implícitos. O preconceito implícito sugere que os estereótipos e julgamentos preconcebidos podem afetar o julgamento de alguém e podem levar a ações não intencionais. Os eventos recentes que se seguiram à morte de George Floyd geraram protestos em todo o mundo em apoio ao movimento Black Lives Matters e à justiça social. Os eventos destacaram a necessidade de reexaminar as práticas atuais de policiamento e enfocar as questões sociais e culturais que afetam o policiamento. O trabalho policial é complexo e às vezes exige que os policiais tomem ações rápidas e tomem decisões em frações de segundo, especialmente ao lidar com situações traumáticas, como apreender criminosos, proteger cenas de crime, preservar evidências, ajudar nas investigações e fazer testes em tribunais. Às vezes, essas tarefas são percebidas negativamente pelo público como resultado de incidentes violentos e encontros adversos com policiais. O trabalho de policiamento requer indivíduos altamente treinados com um espectro de habilidades, conhecimentos e competências. Neste artigo, examinamos algumas das questões culturais e estruturais relativas ao trabalho policial e propomos uma estrutura conceitual que pode servir como um preditor para melhorar a competência cultural e a mudança comportamental.
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