Baines Annalise, Ittefaq Muhammad, Abwao Mauryne
William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
Vaccines (Basel). 2021 Apr 22;9(5):421. doi: 10.3390/vaccines9050421.
This study aims to understand public discussions regarding COVID-19 vaccine on Parler, a newer social media platform that recently gained in popularity. Through analyzing a random sample ( = 400) of Parler posts using the hashtags #COVID19Vaccine and #NoCovidVaccine, we use the concept of echo chambers to understand users' discussions through a text analytics approach. Thematic analysis reveals five key themes: reasons to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine (40%), side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine (28%), population control through the COVID-19 vaccine (23%), children getting vaccinated without parental consent (5%), and comparison of other health issues with COVID-19 (2%). Textual analysis shows that the most frequently used words in the corpus were: nocovidvaccine (348); vaccine (264); covid (184); covid19 (157); and vaccines (128). These findings suggest that users adopted different terms and hashtags to express their beliefs regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Further, findings revealed that users used certain hashtags such as "echo" to encourage like-minded people to reinforce their existing beliefs on COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and vaccine acceptance. These findings have implications for public health communication in attempts to correct false narratives on social media platforms. Through widely sharing the scientific findings of COVID-19 vaccine-related studies can help individuals understand the COVID-19 vaccines efficacy accurately.
本研究旨在了解在Parler(一个最近人气上升的较新社交媒体平台)上关于新冠疫苗的公众讨论。通过使用#COVID19Vaccine和#NoCovidVaccine标签对Parler上的400个帖子随机样本进行分析,我们运用信息茧房的概念,通过文本分析方法来理解用户的讨论。主题分析揭示了五个关键主题:拒绝接种新冠疫苗的原因(40%)、新冠疫苗的副作用(28%)、通过新冠疫苗进行人口控制(23%)、儿童未经父母同意接种疫苗(5%)以及将其他健康问题与新冠进行比较(2%)。文本分析表明,语料库中最常用的词汇是:nocovidvaccine(348次);vaccine(264次);covid(184次);covid19(157次);以及vaccines(128次)。这些发现表明,用户采用不同的术语和标签来表达他们对新冠疫苗的看法。此外,研究结果显示,用户使用某些标签,如“echo”,来鼓励志同道合的人强化他们对新冠疫苗效力和疫苗接受度的现有信念。这些发现对于在社交媒体平台上纠正虚假叙述的公共卫生传播具有启示意义。广泛分享新冠疫苗相关研究的科学发现有助于个人准确理解新冠疫苗的效力。