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Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets

BACKGROUND: The popularity of the magnetic vaccine conspiracy theory and other conspiracy theories of a similar nature creates challenges to promoting vaccines and disseminating accurate health information. OBJECTIVE: Health conspiracy theories are gaining in popularity. This study's objective...

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Autores principales: Ahmed, Wasim, Das, Ronnie, Vidal-Alaball, Josep, Hardey, Mariann, Fuster-Casanovas, Aïna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10131940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36927550
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/43497
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author Ahmed, Wasim
Das, Ronnie
Vidal-Alaball, Josep
Hardey, Mariann
Fuster-Casanovas, Aïna
author_facet Ahmed, Wasim
Das, Ronnie
Vidal-Alaball, Josep
Hardey, Mariann
Fuster-Casanovas, Aïna
author_sort Ahmed, Wasim
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The popularity of the magnetic vaccine conspiracy theory and other conspiracy theories of a similar nature creates challenges to promoting vaccines and disseminating accurate health information. OBJECTIVE: Health conspiracy theories are gaining in popularity. This study's objective was to evaluate the Twitter social media network related to the magnetic vaccine conspiracy theory and apply social capital theory to analyze the unique social structures of influential users. As a strategy for web-based public health surveillance, we conducted a social network analysis to identify the important opinion leaders sharing the conspiracy, the key websites, and the narratives. METHODS: A total of 18,706 tweets were retrieved and analyzed by using social network analysis. Data were retrieved from June 1 to June 13, 2021, using the keyword vaccine magnetic. Tweets were retrieved via a dedicated Twitter application programming interface. More specifically, the Academic Track application programming interface was used, and the data were analyzed by using NodeXL Pro (Social Media Research Foundation) and Gephi. RESULTS: There were a total of 22,762 connections between Twitter users within the data set. This study found that the most influential user within the network consisted of a news account that was reporting on the magnetic vaccine conspiracy. There were also several other users that became influential, such as an epidemiologist, a health economist, and a retired sports athlete who exerted their social capital within the network. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that influential users were effective broadcasters against the conspiracy, and their reach extended beyond their own networks of Twitter followers. We emphasize the need for trust in influential users with regard to health information, particularly in the context of the widespread social uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, when public sentiment on social media may be unpredictable. This study highlights the potential of influential users to disrupt information flows of conspiracy theories via their unique social capital.
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spelling pubmed-101319402023-04-27 Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets Ahmed, Wasim Das, Ronnie Vidal-Alaball, Josep Hardey, Mariann Fuster-Casanovas, Aïna J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: The popularity of the magnetic vaccine conspiracy theory and other conspiracy theories of a similar nature creates challenges to promoting vaccines and disseminating accurate health information. OBJECTIVE: Health conspiracy theories are gaining in popularity. This study's objective was to evaluate the Twitter social media network related to the magnetic vaccine conspiracy theory and apply social capital theory to analyze the unique social structures of influential users. As a strategy for web-based public health surveillance, we conducted a social network analysis to identify the important opinion leaders sharing the conspiracy, the key websites, and the narratives. METHODS: A total of 18,706 tweets were retrieved and analyzed by using social network analysis. Data were retrieved from June 1 to June 13, 2021, using the keyword vaccine magnetic. Tweets were retrieved via a dedicated Twitter application programming interface. More specifically, the Academic Track application programming interface was used, and the data were analyzed by using NodeXL Pro (Social Media Research Foundation) and Gephi. RESULTS: There were a total of 22,762 connections between Twitter users within the data set. This study found that the most influential user within the network consisted of a news account that was reporting on the magnetic vaccine conspiracy. There were also several other users that became influential, such as an epidemiologist, a health economist, and a retired sports athlete who exerted their social capital within the network. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that influential users were effective broadcasters against the conspiracy, and their reach extended beyond their own networks of Twitter followers. We emphasize the need for trust in influential users with regard to health information, particularly in the context of the widespread social uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, when public sentiment on social media may be unpredictable. This study highlights the potential of influential users to disrupt information flows of conspiracy theories via their unique social capital. JMIR Publications 2023-03-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10131940/ /pubmed/36927550 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/43497 Text en ©Wasim Ahmed, Ronnie Das, Josep Vidal-Alaball, Mariann Hardey, Aïna Fuster-Casanovas. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 31.03.2023. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Ahmed, Wasim
Das, Ronnie
Vidal-Alaball, Josep
Hardey, Mariann
Fuster-Casanovas, Aïna
Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets
title Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets
title_full Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets
title_fullStr Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets
title_full_unstemmed Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets
title_short Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets
title_sort twitter's role in combating the magnetic vaccine conspiracy theory: social network analysis of tweets
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10131940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36927550
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/43497
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