Online Monitoring of Stance from Tweets: The case of Green Pass in Italy

Abstract

Stance detection on social media has attracted a lot of attention in the last few years, as opinionated posts are an invaluable source of information which can possibly be exploited in dedicated systems. This is especially true in the case of particularly polarizing topics for which there is no clear consensus among population. In this paper, we focus on one of these topics, namely the EU digital COVID certificate (also known as Green Pass), with the objective of uncovering the stance towards it in a specific time period for the Italian Twitter community. To this aim, we first tested some classifiers for determining the most suitable one in terms of performance and complexity for the stance detection problem under consideration. Then, we compared several approaches aimed at counteracting the occurrence of concept drift, i.e., that phenomenon for which the characteristics of the dataset vary over time, possibly resulting in a degradation of classification accuracy. Our experimental analysis suggests that updating the classifier during the stance monitoring campaign is crucial for maintaining a satisfactory level of performance. Finally, we deployed our system to monitor the stance on the topic of Green Pass expressed in tweets published from July to December 2021 and to obtain insights about its evolution.

Perceived Covid-19-crisis intensity and family supportive organizational perceptions as antecedents of parental burnout: A study conducted in Italy in March/April 2021 and 2022

“…In a study among Italian parents, Cusinato et al (2020) found that lockdown measures and changes in daily routine negatively affected parents' psychological dimensions. To conclude, the foregoing leads to the following hypotheses: H1: Perceived Covid-19-Crisis Intensity is positively related to parental burnout Furthermore, we expect that societal debates and the polarization in Italian society (Bondielli et al, 2022;Spitale et al, 2022) may trickle down and create tensions in families. We argue that diverging attitudes concerning Covid-19 vaccination and vaccination passports may create additional psychological stressors for parents.…”

“…Furthermore, we expect that societal debates and the polarization in Italian society ( Bondielli et al, 2022 ; Spitale et al, 2022 ) may trickle down and create tensions in families. We argue that diverging attitudes concerning Covid-19 vaccination and vaccination passports may create additional psychological stressors for parents.…”

“…Measures in the spring of 2021 were very strict (schools were closed, leaving one’s house only allowed with authorization) and still strict in the spring of 2022, although at the end of March 2022 restriction measures were gradually loosened and more mobility was allowed for the vaccinated and when waring mouth-nose-masks ( Mazzuca, 2022 ). Protests against compulsory vaccination and restriction measures in Italian society increased during this timeframe, resulting in a substantial polarization in Italian society ( Bondielli et al, 2022 ; Spitale et al, 2022 ). This polarization has left no family untouched.…”