A Study on the Dissemination Pathways of Public Opinion in Urban Public Safety Emergencies Driven by Social Media

Government Surveillance and Counter-Surveillance on Social and Mobile Media: The Case of Iran (2009)

Authorship and individualization in the digital public sphere

Recommendations for Social Media Use in Hospitals and Health Care Facilities

BackgroundIn May 2013, a measles outbreak began in the Netherlands among Orthodox Protestants who often refuse vaccination for religious reasons.ObjectiveOur aim was to compare the number of messages expressed on Twitter and other social media during the measles outbreak with the number of online news articles and the number of reported measles cases to answer the question if and when social media reflect public opinion patterns versus disease patterns.MethodsWe analyzed measles-related tweets, other social media messages, and online newspaper articles over a 7-month period (April 15 to November 11, 2013) with regard to topic and sentiment. Thematic analysis was used to structure and analyze the topics.ResultsThere was a stronger correlation between the weekly number of social media messages and the weekly number of online news articles (P<.001 for both tweets and other social media messages) than between the weekly number of social media messages and the weekly number of reported measles cases (P=.003 and P=.048 for tweets and other social media messages, respectively), especially after the summer break. All data sources showed 3 large peaks, possibly triggered by announcements about the measles outbreak by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and statements made by well-known politicians. Most messages informed the public about the measles outbreak (ie, about the number of measles cases) (93/165, 56.4%) followed by messages about preventive measures taken to control the measles spread (47/132, 35.6%). The leading opinion expressed was frustration regarding people who do not vaccinate because of religious reasons (42/88, 48%).ConclusionsThe monitoring of online (social) media might be useful for improving communication policies aiming to preserve vaccination acceptability among the general public. Data extracted from online (social) media provide insight into the opinions that are at a certain moment salient among the public, which enables public health institutes to respond immediately and appropriately to those public concerns. More research is required to develop an automatic coding system that captures content and user’s characteristics that are most relevant to the diseases within the National Immunization Program and related public health events and can inform official responses.

The Big Question: Have social media and/or smartphones disrupted life in your part of the world?

From Café Culture to Tweets

The workshop program of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's Fourteenth International Conference on Web and Social Media was held June 8 to 20, 2020. The conference venue, which had originally been Atlanta, Georgia, USA, had to be revamped into a virtual edition, due to the 2019 Corona Virus Disease pandemic. There were five full‐day workshops in the program. They included Emoji Understanding and Applications in Social Media (W1), Social Sensing: Narrative Analysis on Social Media (W2), News and Public Opinion (W3), Cyber Social Threats (W4), and Mediate: Social and News Media Misinformation (W5). This report contains summaries of all five workshops.

Deliberative democracy and the digital public sphere: Asymmetrical fragmentation as a political not a technological problem

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted governments worldwide to utilise social media news platforms for disseminating critical public health information and safety protocols. Visual aids, including photographs, videos, charts, and infographics, played a key role in conveying health-related messages. However, there are variations in visual communication practices across countries, influenced by local health communication habits and cultural contexts. This study examines these variations in the visual health discourse that emerged in China and Germany during the pandemic, focusing on metaphorical mapping as a central analytical tool. We introduce the concept of “visual dataset fingerprints,” outlining the distinct composition of public health visuals on eight social news media platforms in Germany and China. Our descriptive analysis encompasses over 3700 digital visual media posts related to COVID-19, shared by leading national news media accounts in German, English, and Mandarin on microblogs in 2022. As a preliminary outcome of our study, we observe differences in image use based on the analysis of 1678 media posts by four Chinese outlets and 1329 media posts by four German outlets. These differences may reflect variations in how public opinion, perceptions, and attitudes toward COVID-19 policies are shaped across languages and cultures. Through its comparative visual analysis, our pilot study offers the potential for a new research approach to global healthcare communication in social news media and digital visual cultures.

Introduction:People with disabilities are generally more vulnerable during disasters and public emergencies than the general population. Physical, sensory and cognitive impairments may result in greater difficulty in receiving and understanding emergency alert information, and greater difficulty in taking appropriate action. The use of social media in the United States has grown considerably in recent years. This has generated increasing interest on the part of national, state and local jurisdictions in leveraging these channels to communicate public health and safety information. How and to what extent people with disabilities use social and other communications media during public emergencies can help public safety organizations understand the communication needs of the citizens in their jurisdictions, and plan their social media and other communications strategies accordingly.Methods:This article presents data from a survey on the use of social media and other communications media during public emergencies by people with disabilities conducted from November 1, 2012 through March 30, 2013.Results:The data presented here show four key results. First, levels of use of social media in general are high for people with disabilities, as well as for the general population. Second, use of social media during emergencies is still low for both groups. Third, levels of use of social media are not associated with income levels, but are significantly and strongly associated with age: younger people use social media at higher rates than older people in both groups (p<0.001). Fourth, differences in the use of social media during emergencies across disability types are slight, with the exception of deaf and hard-of-hearing respondents, the former more likely to have used social media to receive (p=0.002), verify (p=0.092) and share (p=0.007) emergency information.Conclusion:These last two results suggest that effective emergency communications strategies need to rely on multiple media types and channels to reach the entire community.

Crowd Sourcing for Organs: A Social Dilemma.

How opinion distortion appears in super-influencer dominated social network

Introduction: The relevance of this topic is that social media has become a crucial tool for communication and political campaigns. As a significant portion of society now resides in the online space, it is crucial to study the strategies and outcomes of using social media in politics to understand the impact of these platforms on public opinion and electoral processes. Analysing this issue enables the identification of significant trends and the development of approaches for the optimal use of social media in a political context. This research aims to comprehensively analyse and systematise the strategies used in political campaigns on social media. Additionally, it seeks to evaluate the influence of these strategies on public opinion and electoral processes. Objectives: The study aims to uncover the critical aspects of social media usage in politics, identify vital strategies, assess their impact on voters, and examine the formation of political leaders' images. The objective also includes studying the positive and negative aspects of using social media in political campaigns and determining opportunities for optimising this processin line with legalandso cialre quirements. Methods: There search methodology in volvesan alysing literary our cesto identify critical theories and concepts related to social media interaction with political campaigns. Case studies are used to explore actual examples of social media usage in political campaigns. Expert surveys are conducted to gather specialist opinions. The content analysis method is applied to thoroughly study textual and visual content on social media during political campaigns. This approach aims to comprehensively analyse the impact of social media on political campaign sand determine the factors that contribute toits effectiveness. Results: The article reveals strategies for influencing social media on political campaigns based on obtained data. It highlights key aspects of their impact, such as interactivity, microtargeting, and the use of viral content. The research also considers legal and sociological aspects of this phenomenon, including the regulation of social campaigns and criteria for the acceptability or unacceptability of certain strategies. Conclusions: Thearticleanalyses social media's influence on political campaigns, exploring different strategies for utilising these platforms and their outcomes. Various methods, such as literature analysis, case studies, expert surveys, and content analysis, have enabled the systematisation of knowledge about the interaction between social media and political campaigns. Various aspects that influence the effectiveness of social media usage in politics have been identified, including microtargeting, viral content, and interactivity. The text discusses different types of political campaigns, such as electoral, lobbying, and socio-activist, providing the reader with a deep understanding and contextualisation of the issue.

Social media allows users to share information and communicate interpersonally during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns. We conducted a scoping review of the literature using the Arksey and O’Malley framework to examine how social media is used during these environmental concerns, determine what the implications are for public health officials, and identify research gaps. Thirty-four articles were retrieved for the review. From these articles, four main questions were answered: How can social media be used to disseminate information to others? How is social media used for data prediction and early warnings? How is social media used for environmental awareness and health promotion? Lastly, how can social media be used as an indicator of public participation in social media during environmental concerns? We found evidence supporting social media as a useful surveillance tool during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns. Public health officials can use social media to gain insight into public opinions and perceptions. Social media allows public health workers and emergency responders to act more quickly and efficiently during crises. Further research is needed to improve the use of social media during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns.

This article attempts to explain social media use within the relationship between the public and government of Indonesia in the era of digital government, as well as to consider public opinion on this matter. This research is based on the application of social media logic and the theory of dialogic communication and action. A qualitative descriptive approach was used to observe the general behavior of social media use by 34 ministries in Indonesia, including interviews with the resource persons within the ministries and focus group discussions with members of the public and observers. The research shows that the relationship between the public and government is accommodative and in line with social media logic. The public sector implemented social media as its platform, which has been further adopted by all ministries. The public sector cannot avoid social media, as it has become part of basic connectivity, even though the use of social media by the government still tends to be in the form of presenting public information. There are advantages and disadvantages of the usage of social media by the government. The advantages include allowing the government to be more open via social media so that communication between the government as the ruling organization and its public can be more fluent. Social media provides space to the public sector in the practice of digital government. Some disadvantages arise as logical consequences that usage of social media cannot be separated from the implementation of digital government. The adaptive behavior of social media by the government can be found by following social media logic as part of digital government implementation. Social media logic causes the government to follow the rules of social media. In this context, the strength and power of the country seems to be regulated by social media. Therefore, more studies on how social media is managed in the context of its usage as digital government support is needed.