Understanding online conversations about COVID-19 vaccine on Twitter: vaccine hesitancy amid the public health crisis

Impact of social media news on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and vaccination behavior

“…First, this study contributed to the literature on the impact of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared with previous studies ( Dib et al, 2021 , Gudi et al, 2022 , Malova, 2021 , Nair et al, 2021 , Wilson and Wiysonge, 2020 ), this study complementarily identified the specific mechanisms through which vaccine news from social media affects vaccine hesitancy and vaccination behavior. Additionally, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study investigated the effect of social media information with a novel lens (i.e., vaccine safety news from social media and vaccine risk news from social media).…”

“…Furthermore, social media has emerged as a crucial factor in shaping vaccine hesitancy. Prior studies have mainly focused on different types of social media ( Liu et al, 2021 ), misinformation ( Dib et al, 2021 , Gudi et al, 2022 , Lu et al, 2022 ), the content of conversations ( Malova, 2021 ) and the impact of anti-vaccination information ( Nair et al, 2021 , Wilson and Wiysonge, 2020 ) on social media. However, few studies analyzed vaccine safety news and risk news from social media, and few have examined the mechanisms by which social media information influences vaccine hesitancy and vaccination behavior.…”

“…Under the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of individuals acquire vaccination guidance through social media platforms ( Paramita et al, 2021 ). Given the ongoing concerns about the safety and risks of the COVID-19 vaccines ( Calnan and Douglass, 2020 , Malova, 2021 ), people actively turn to social media for news about the safety and risks of the COVID-19 vaccines. People's exposure to the information is related to their subsequent vaccination attitudes and behaviors ( Dunn et al, 2017 , Xu, 2019 ).…”

Incivility and Intolerance in COVID-19 Discussions on Facebook

“…Heated reactions and polarization are frequent responses to societal and health crises, and COVID-19 was no exception (see Hiaeshutter-Rice & Hawkins, 2022; Vochocová et al, 2022). The unpredictable character of the pandemic and its impact on several spheres of everyday life, in combination with chaotic responses from the government, fueled the spread of disinformation, hate speech, and personal attacks in online environments (see Malova, 2021; Vergani et al, 2022). During this period, social media became an important venue for public discussion.…”

Public discourse and debate about vaccines in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic: A qualitative content analysis of Twitter

“…However, the previous literature has tended to focus on specific elements of the debate (e.g., tone about vaccines, or content about vaccine side effects, etc.) [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] but has not yet explored how the different features and dimensions of the public discourse about vaccines are related to each other. Precisely, the main goal of our study is to identify the different characteristics of vaccine-related discourses and explore its patterns of association.…”