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Characterizing the COVID-19 Infodemic on Chinese Social Media: Exploratory Study.
JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2021 02 05; 7(2):e26090.JP

Abstract

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 infodemic has been disseminating rapidly on social media and posing a significant threat to people's health and governance systems.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate and analyze posts related to COVID-19 misinformation on major Chinese social media platforms in order to characterize the COVID-19 infodemic.

METHODS

We collected posts related to COVID-19 misinformation published on major Chinese social media platforms from January 20 to May 28, 2020, by using PythonToolkit. We used content analysis to identify the quantity and source of prevalent posts and topic modeling to cluster themes related to the COVID-19 infodemic. Furthermore, we explored the quantity, sources, and theme characteristics of the COVID-19 infodemic over time.

RESULTS

The daily number of social media posts related to the COVID-19 infodemic was positively correlated with the daily number of newly confirmed (r=0.672, P<.01) and newly suspected (r=0.497, P<.01) COVID-19 cases. The COVID-19 infodemic showed a characteristic of gradual progress, which can be divided into 5 stages: incubation, outbreak, stalemate, control, and recovery. The sources of the COVID-19 infodemic can be divided into 5 types: chat platforms (1100/2745, 40.07%), video-sharing platforms (642/2745, 23.39%), news-sharing platforms (607/2745, 22.11%), health care platforms (239/2745, 8.71%), and Q&A platforms (157/2745, 5.72%), which slightly differed at each stage. The themes related to the COVID-19 infodemic were clustered into 8 categories: "conspiracy theories" (648/2745, 23.61%), "government response" (544/2745, 19.82%), "prevention action" (411/2745, 14.97%), "new cases" (365/2745, 13.30%), "transmission routes" (244/2745, 8.89%), "origin and nomenclature" (228/2745, 8.30%), "vaccines and medicines" (154/2745, 5.61%), and "symptoms and detection" (151/2745, 5.50%), which were prominently diverse at different stages. Additionally, the COVID-19 infodemic showed the characteristic of repeated fluctuations.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study found that the COVID-19 infodemic on Chinese social media was characterized by gradual progress, videoization, and repeated fluctuations. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the COVID-19 infodemic is paralleled to the propagation of the COVID-19 epidemic. We have tracked the COVID-19 infodemic across Chinese social media, providing critical new insights into the characteristics of the infodemic and pointing out opportunities for preventing and controlling the COVID-19 infodemic.

Links

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Zhang S
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Pian W
School of Economics and Management, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China.
Ma F
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Ni Z
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Liu Y
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

MeSH

COVID-19ChinaCommunicationHumansInformation DisseminationSocial Media

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

33460391

Citation

Zhang, Shuai, et al. "Characterizing the COVID-19 Infodemic On Chinese Social Media: Exploratory Study." JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, vol. 7, no. 2, 2021, pp. e26090.
Zhang S, Pian W, Ma F, et al. Characterizing the COVID-19 Infodemic on Chinese Social Media: Exploratory Study. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2021;7(2):e26090.
Zhang, S., Pian, W., Ma, F., Ni, Z., & Liu, Y. (2021). Characterizing the COVID-19 Infodemic on Chinese Social Media: Exploratory Study. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 7(2), e26090. https://doi.org/10.2196/26090
Zhang S, et al. Characterizing the COVID-19 Infodemic On Chinese Social Media: Exploratory Study. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2021 02 5;7(2):e26090. PubMed PMID: 33460391.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Characterizing the COVID-19 Infodemic on Chinese Social Media: Exploratory Study. AU - Zhang,Shuai, AU - Pian,Wenjing, AU - Ma,Feicheng, AU - Ni,Zhenni, AU - Liu,Yunmei, Y1 - 2021/02/05/ PY - 2020/11/27/received PY - 2021/01/15/accepted PY - 2020/12/13/revised PY - 2021/1/19/pubmed PY - 2021/2/11/medline PY - 2021/1/18/entrez KW - COVID-19 KW - China KW - dissemination KW - epidemic KW - exploratory KW - infodemic KW - infodemiology KW - misinformation KW - social media KW - spread characteristics SP - e26090 EP - e26090 JF - JMIR public health and surveillance JO - JMIR Public Health Surveill VL - 7 IS - 2 N2 - BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 infodemic has been disseminating rapidly on social media and posing a significant threat to people's health and governance systems. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate and analyze posts related to COVID-19 misinformation on major Chinese social media platforms in order to characterize the COVID-19 infodemic. METHODS: We collected posts related to COVID-19 misinformation published on major Chinese social media platforms from January 20 to May 28, 2020, by using PythonToolkit. We used content analysis to identify the quantity and source of prevalent posts and topic modeling to cluster themes related to the COVID-19 infodemic. Furthermore, we explored the quantity, sources, and theme characteristics of the COVID-19 infodemic over time. RESULTS: The daily number of social media posts related to the COVID-19 infodemic was positively correlated with the daily number of newly confirmed (r=0.672, P<.01) and newly suspected (r=0.497, P<.01) COVID-19 cases. The COVID-19 infodemic showed a characteristic of gradual progress, which can be divided into 5 stages: incubation, outbreak, stalemate, control, and recovery. The sources of the COVID-19 infodemic can be divided into 5 types: chat platforms (1100/2745, 40.07%), video-sharing platforms (642/2745, 23.39%), news-sharing platforms (607/2745, 22.11%), health care platforms (239/2745, 8.71%), and Q&A platforms (157/2745, 5.72%), which slightly differed at each stage. The themes related to the COVID-19 infodemic were clustered into 8 categories: "conspiracy theories" (648/2745, 23.61%), "government response" (544/2745, 19.82%), "prevention action" (411/2745, 14.97%), "new cases" (365/2745, 13.30%), "transmission routes" (244/2745, 8.89%), "origin and nomenclature" (228/2745, 8.30%), "vaccines and medicines" (154/2745, 5.61%), and "symptoms and detection" (151/2745, 5.50%), which were prominently diverse at different stages. Additionally, the COVID-19 infodemic showed the characteristic of repeated fluctuations. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that the COVID-19 infodemic on Chinese social media was characterized by gradual progress, videoization, and repeated fluctuations. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the COVID-19 infodemic is paralleled to the propagation of the COVID-19 epidemic. We have tracked the COVID-19 infodemic across Chinese social media, providing critical new insights into the characteristics of the infodemic and pointing out opportunities for preventing and controlling the COVID-19 infodemic. SN - 2369-2960 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/33460391/Characterizing_the_COVID_19_Infodemic_on_Chinese_Social_Media:_Exploratory_Study_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -