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Constructing and Communicating COVID-19 Stigma on Twitter: A Content Analysis of Tweets during the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak

This study focuses on stigma communication about COVID-19 on Twitter in the early stage of the outbreak, given the lack of information and rapid global expansion of new cases during this period. Guided by the model of stigma communication, we examine four types of message content, namely mark, group...

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Autores principales: Li, Yachao, Twersky, Sylvia, Ignace, Kelsey, Zhao, Mei, Purandare, Radhika, Bennett-Jones, Breeda, Weaver, Scott R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7557581/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32961702
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186847
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author Li, Yachao
Twersky, Sylvia
Ignace, Kelsey
Zhao, Mei
Purandare, Radhika
Bennett-Jones, Breeda
Weaver, Scott R.
author_facet Li, Yachao
Twersky, Sylvia
Ignace, Kelsey
Zhao, Mei
Purandare, Radhika
Bennett-Jones, Breeda
Weaver, Scott R.
author_sort Li, Yachao
collection PubMed
description This study focuses on stigma communication about COVID-19 on Twitter in the early stage of the outbreak, given the lack of information and rapid global expansion of new cases during this period. Guided by the model of stigma communication, we examine four types of message content, namely mark, group labeling, responsibility, and peril, that are instrumental in forming stigma beliefs and sharing stigma messages. We also explore whether the presence of misinformation and conspiracy theories in COVID-19-related tweets is associated with the presence of COVID-19 stigma content. A total of 155,353 unique COVID-19-related tweets posted between December 31, 2019, and March 13, 2020, were identified, from which 7000 tweets were randomly selected for manual coding. Results showed that the peril of COVID-19 was mentioned the most often, followed by mark, responsibility, and group labeling content. Tweets with conspiracy theories were more likely to include group labeling and responsibility information, but less likely to mention COVID-19 peril. Public health agencies should be aware of the unintentional stigmatization of COVID-19 in public health messages and the urgency to engage and educate the public about the facts of COVID-19.
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spelling pubmed-75575812020-10-20 Constructing and Communicating COVID-19 Stigma on Twitter: A Content Analysis of Tweets during the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak Li, Yachao Twersky, Sylvia Ignace, Kelsey Zhao, Mei Purandare, Radhika Bennett-Jones, Breeda Weaver, Scott R. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This study focuses on stigma communication about COVID-19 on Twitter in the early stage of the outbreak, given the lack of information and rapid global expansion of new cases during this period. Guided by the model of stigma communication, we examine four types of message content, namely mark, group labeling, responsibility, and peril, that are instrumental in forming stigma beliefs and sharing stigma messages. We also explore whether the presence of misinformation and conspiracy theories in COVID-19-related tweets is associated with the presence of COVID-19 stigma content. A total of 155,353 unique COVID-19-related tweets posted between December 31, 2019, and March 13, 2020, were identified, from which 7000 tweets were randomly selected for manual coding. Results showed that the peril of COVID-19 was mentioned the most often, followed by mark, responsibility, and group labeling content. Tweets with conspiracy theories were more likely to include group labeling and responsibility information, but less likely to mention COVID-19 peril. Public health agencies should be aware of the unintentional stigmatization of COVID-19 in public health messages and the urgency to engage and educate the public about the facts of COVID-19. MDPI 2020-09-19 2020-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7557581/ /pubmed/32961702 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186847 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Li, Yachao
Twersky, Sylvia
Ignace, Kelsey
Zhao, Mei
Purandare, Radhika
Bennett-Jones, Breeda
Weaver, Scott R.
Constructing and Communicating COVID-19 Stigma on Twitter: A Content Analysis of Tweets during the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak
title Constructing and Communicating COVID-19 Stigma on Twitter: A Content Analysis of Tweets during the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak
title_full Constructing and Communicating COVID-19 Stigma on Twitter: A Content Analysis of Tweets during the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak
title_fullStr Constructing and Communicating COVID-19 Stigma on Twitter: A Content Analysis of Tweets during the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak
title_full_unstemmed Constructing and Communicating COVID-19 Stigma on Twitter: A Content Analysis of Tweets during the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak
title_short Constructing and Communicating COVID-19 Stigma on Twitter: A Content Analysis of Tweets during the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak
title_sort constructing and communicating covid-19 stigma on twitter: a content analysis of tweets during the early stage of the covid-19 outbreak
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7557581/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32961702
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186847
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