scholarly journals We grow by Retweeting and Following: Examining the Pro-Eating Disorders community on Twitter via #Proana (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suku SUKUNESAN
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Weight Control ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Reciprocal Effect ◽  
Final Sample ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Over Time

BACKGROUND There is increasing concern around communities which promote eating disorders (Pro-ED) on social media sites through messages and images which encourage dangerous weight control behaviours. These communities share group identity formed through interactions between members and can involve the exchange of ‘tips’, restrictive dieting plans, extreme exercise plans and motivating imagery of thin bodies. Unlike Instagram, Facebook or Tumblr, the absence of adequate policy to moderate Pro-ED content on Twitter presents a unique space Pro-ED community to freely communicate. While recent research have identified terms, themes and common lexicon used within the Pro-ED online community very few have been longitudinal. It is important to focus upon the engagement of Pro-ED online communities over time to further understand how members interact and stay connected, which is currently lacking. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to explore beyond the common messages of Pro-ED on Twitter to understand how Pro-ED communities get traction over time by using the hashtag considered to symbolise the Pro-ED movement, #proana. Our focus was to collect longitudinal data to gain further understanding on the engagement of Pro-ED communities on Twitter. METHODS Descriptive statistics were used to identify the preferred tweeting style of Twitter users (either as mentioning another user in a tweet, or as an individual tweet to oneself, commonly referred to as ‘self-directed’) as well as their most frequently used hashtag, in addition to #proana. A series of Mann Whitney U tests were then conducted to compare preferred posting style across number of followed, followers, tweets and favourites. This was followed by Linear models using a forward step-wise approach, were applied for Pro-ED Twitter users to examine the factors associated with their number of followers. RESULTS This study consisted of 11,620 Pro-ED Twitter accounts who posted using the hashtag #proana between September 2015 and July 2018. These profiles then underwent before a two-step inclusion / exclusion criteria screen to reach the final sample of 967 profiles. Over 90% (10,484) of the profiles were found to have less than 6 tweets within the 34 months period. Most of the users were identified as preferring a mentioning style of tweeting (74.3%) over self-directed styles (25.7%). Further, #proana and #thinspo were used interchangeably to propagate shared themes and there was a reciprocal effect between followers and followed. CONCLUSIONS Our analysis showed that the number of accounts followed and number of Pro-ED tweets posted were significant predictors for the number of followers a user compared to likes. Our results could potentially be useful to social media platforms to understand which features could help or otherwise in curtailing spread of ED messages and activity. Our findings also show that Pro-ED communities are transient in nature engaging in superficial discussion threads but resilient, emulating cybersectarian behaviour.

Comparing Representation of Depression on Reddit and Twitter Social Media Platforms (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Kaji ◽  
Maggie Bushman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Dsm Iv ◽  
Twitter Users

BACKGROUND Adolescents with depression often turn to social media to express their feelings, for support, and for educational purposes. Little is known about how Reddit, a forum-based platform, compares to Twitter, a newsfeed platform, when it comes to content surrounding depression. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to identify differences between Reddit and Twitter concerning how depression is discussed and represented online. METHODS A content analysis of Reddit posts and Twitter posts, using r/depression and #depression, identified signs of depression using the DSM-IV criteria. Other youth-related topics, including School, Family, and Social Activity, and the presence of medical or promotional content were also coded for. Relative frequency of each code was then compared between platforms as well as the average DSM-IV score for each platform. RESULTS A total of 102 posts were included in this study, with 53 Reddit posts and 49 Twitter posts. Findings suggest that Reddit has more content with signs of depression with 92% than Twitter with 24%. 28.3% of Reddit posts included medical content compared to Twitter with 18.4%. 53.1% of Twitter posts had promotional content while Reddit posts didn’t contain promotional content. CONCLUSIONS Users with depression seem more willing to discuss their mental health on the subreddit r/depression than on Twitter. Twitter users also use #depression with a wider variety of topics, not all of which actually involve a case of depression.

scholarly journals Prevalence of health misinformation in social media: a systematic review (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Suarez-Lledo ◽  
Javier Alvarez-Galvez
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Media Platforms

BACKGROUND The propagation of health misinformation through social media has become a major public health concern over the last two decades. Although today there is broad agreement among researchers, health professionals, and policy makers on the need to control and combat health misinformation, the magnitude of this problem is still unknown. Consequently, before adopting the necessary measures for the adequate control of health misinformation in social media, it is fundamental to discover both the most prevalent health topics and the social media platforms from which these topics are initially framed and subsequently disseminated. OBJECTIVE This systematic review aims to identify the main health misinformation topics and their prevalence on different social media platforms, focusing on methodological quality and the diverse solutions that are being implemented to address this public health concern. METHODS This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines (PRISMA). We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus and the Web of Science for articles published in English before March 2019 with a particular focus on studying health misinformation in social media. We defined health misinformation as a health-related claim based on anecdotal evidence, false, or misleading due to the lack of existing scientific knowledge. The criteria for inclusion were: 1) articles that focused on health misinformation in social media, including those in which the authors discussed the consequences or purposes of health misinformation; and 2) studies that described empirical findings regarding the measurement of health misinformation in these platforms. RESULTS A total of 69 studies were identified as eligible, covering a wide range of health topics and social media platforms. The topics were articulated around six principal categories: vaccines (32%), drugs or smoking (22%), non-communicable disease (19%), pandemics (10%), eating disorders (9%), and medical treatments (7%). Studies were mainly based on five methodological approaches: Social Network Analysis (28%), Evaluating Content (26%), Evaluating Quality (24%), Content/Text analysis (16%) and Sentiment Analysis (6%). Health misinformation proved to be the most more prevalent in studies related to smoking products and drugs such as opioids or marijuana. Posts with misinformation reached 87% in some studies focused in smoking products. Health misinformation about vaccines was also very common (43%), but studies reported different levels of misinformation depending on the different vaccines, with the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine being the most affected. Secondly, health misinformation related to diets or pro eating disorders (pro-ED) arguments were moderate in comparison to the aforementioned topics (36%). Studies focused on diseases (i.e. non-communicable diseases and pandemics) also reported moderate misinformation rates (40%), especially in the case of cancer. Finally, the lowest levels of health misinformation were related to medical treatments (30%). CONCLUSIONS Prevalence of health misinformation was most common on Twitter and on issues related to smoking products and drugs. However, misinformation is also high on major public health issues such as vaccines and diseases. Our study offers a comprehensive characterization of the dominant health misinformation topics and a comprehensive description of their prevalence in different social media platforms, which can guide future studies and help in the development of evidence-based digital policy actions plans. CLINICALTRIAL

The Islamic State’s information warfare

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra A. Siegel ◽  
Joshua A. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Information Warfare ◽  
Core Network ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Search Data ◽  
Online Strategy ◽  
Twitter Users

Abstract How successful is the Islamic State’s online strategy? To what extent does the organization achieve its goals of attracting a global audience, broadcasting its military successes, and marketing the Caliphate? Using Twitter and YouTube search data, collected throughout 2015 and early 2016, we assess how suspected ISIS accounts, sympathizers, and opponents behave across two social media platforms, offering key insights into the successes and limitations of ISIS’s information warfare strategy. Analyzing the tweet content and metadata from 16,364 suspected ISIS accounts, we find that a core network of ISIS Twitter users are producing linguistically diverse narratives, touting battlefield victories and depicting utopian life in the Caliphate. Furthermore, a dataset of over 70 million tweets, as well as analysis YouTube search data, indicates that although pro-ISIS content spreads globally and remains on message, it is far less prolific than anti-ISIS content. However, this anti-ISIS content is not necessarily anti-extremist or aligned with Western policy goals.

scholarly journals Pengelolaan Konten Media Sosial Korporat pada Instagram Sebuah Pusat Perbelanjaan

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Siti Muslichatul Mahmudah ◽  
Muthia Rahayu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Media Management ◽  
Circular Model ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Monitoring ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Social Media Management ◽  
Corporate Level

The use of social media continues to increase until now, one of is Instagram that commonly used at the corporate level. As in the type of shopping center company (Mall) that has a visitor with characteristics to find out all information related to the mall that he wants to visit through the mall's social media, Instagram. Therefore it requires the management of social media content to help the company's audience in getting information and become the communication media between the company and their audience. The theory used in this research is The Circular Model of Some by Regina Luttrell in his book Social Media How to Engage, Share, and Connect. From the results of the research note that in managing content on corporate social media instagram, the aspect of sharing begins with understanding the purpose of the use of social media platforms for corporates. Next to the optimize aspect, which is to make a posting schedule and use the features available on Instagram. The process of controlling or aspects of managing is also carried out by making media monitoring reports as a form of evaluation and accountability to company management. In the aspect of engaging, establishing good relations with the online community to get Instagram exposure on the content produced. Keywords: Social Media Management, Content, Instagram.

scholarly journals Electronic Cigarette Users' Perspective on the COVID-19 Pandemic: Observational Study Using Twitter Data (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yankun Gao ◽  
Zidian Xie ◽  
Dongmei Li
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Electronic Cigarette ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) users might be more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection and could develop more severe symptoms if they contract the disease owing to their impaired immune responses to viral infections. Social media platforms such as Twitter have been widely used by individuals worldwide to express their responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE In this study, we aimed to examine the longitudinal changes in the attitudes of Twitter users who used e-cigarettes toward the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as compare differences in attitudes between e-cigarette users and nonusers based on Twitter data. METHODS The study dataset containing COVID-19–related Twitter posts (tweets) posted between March 5 and April 3, 2020, was collected using a Twitter streaming application programming interface with COVID-19–related keywords. Twitter users were classified into two groups: Ecig group, including users who did not have commercial accounts but posted e-cigarette–related tweets between May 2019 and August 2019, and non-Ecig group, including users who did not post any e-cigarette–related tweets. Sentiment analysis was performed to compare sentiment scores towards the COVID-19 pandemic between both groups and determine whether the sentiment expressed was positive, negative, or neutral. Topic modeling was performed to compare the main topics discussed between the groups. RESULTS The US COVID-19 dataset consisted of 4,500,248 COVID-19–related tweets collected from 187,399 unique Twitter users in the Ecig group and 11,479,773 COVID-19–related tweets collected from 2,511,659 unique Twitter users in the non-Ecig group. Sentiment analysis showed that Ecig group users had more negative sentiment scores than non-Ecig group users. Results from topic modeling indicated that Ecig group users had more concerns about deaths due to COVID-19, whereas non-Ecig group users cared more about the government’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS Our findings show that Twitter users who tweeted about e-cigarettes had more concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings can inform public health practitioners to use social media platforms such as Twitter for timely monitoring of public responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and educating and encouraging current e-cigarette users to quit vaping to minimize the risks associated with COVID-19.

scholarly journals Evaluating the legitimacy of platform governance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Pierre Suzor ◽  
Tess Van Geelen ◽  
Sarah Myers West
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Platform Governance ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Policies And Practices

This paper provides an overview of the key values that we argue should underpin an index of the legitimacy of the governance of online intermediaries. The aim is ultimately to allow scholars to rank the policies and practices of intermediaries against core human rights values and principles of legitimate governance in a way that enables comparison across different intermediaries and over time. This work builds on the efforts of a broad range of researchers already working to systematically investigate the governance of social media platforms and telecommunications intermediaries. In this paper, we present our review and analysis of the work that has been carried out to date, using the digital constitutionalism literature to identify opportunities for further research and collaboration.

scholarly journals A simulated cyberattack on Twitter: Assessing partisan vulnerability to spear phishing and disinformation ahead of the 2018 U.S. midterm elections

First Monday ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bossetta
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Breaking News ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Midterm Elections ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Twitter Users

State-sponsored “bad actors” increasingly weaponize social media platforms to launch cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns during elections. Social media companies, due to their rapid growth and scale, struggle to prevent the weaponization of their platforms. This study conducts an automated spear phishing and disinformation campaign on Twitter ahead of the 2018 United States midterm elections. A fake news bot account — the @DCNewsReport — was created and programmed to automatically send customized tweets with a “breaking news” link to 138 Twitter users, before being restricted by Twitter.Overall, one in five users clicked the link, which could have potentially led to the downloading of ransomware or the theft of private information. However, the link in this experiment was non-malicious and redirected users to a Google Forms survey. In predicting users’ likelihood to click the link on Twitter, no statistically significant differences were observed between right-wing and left-wing partisans, or between Web users and mobile users. The findings signal that politically expressive Americans on Twitter, regardless of their party preferences or the devices they use to access the platform, are at risk of being spear phished on social media.

scholarly journals Connecting the Urological Community : The #UroSoMe Experience

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. e20-e29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalyan Gudaru ◽  
Leonardo Tortolero Blanco ◽  
Daniele Castellani ◽  
Hegel Trujillo Santamaria ◽  
Marcela Pelayo-Nieto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Twitter Account ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Twitter Activity

Background and Objectives There is an increasing use of social media amongst the urological community. However, it is difficult to identify urological data on various social media platforms in an efficient manner. We proposed a hashtag, #UroSoMe, to be used when posting urology-related content in the social media platforms. The objectives of this article are to describe how #UroSoMe was developed, and to report the data of the first month of #UroSoMe.   Material and Methods The hashtag, #UroSoMe, was introduced to the urological community. The #UroSoMe working group was formed, and the members actively invited and encouraged people to use the hashtag #UroSoMe when posting urology-related contents. After the #UroSoMe (@so_uro) platform on twitter had grown to more than 300 users, the first live event of online case discussion, i.e. #LiveCaseDiscussions, was conducted. A prospective observational study of the hashtag #UroSoMe Twitter activity during the first month of its usage from 14 December 2018 to 13 January 2019 was evaluated. Outcome measures included number of users, number of tweets, user location, top tweeters, top hashtags used and interactions. Analysis was performed using NodeXL (Social Media Research Foundation; California, USA; https://www.smrfoundation.org/nodexl/), Symplur (https:// www.symplur.com) and Twitonomy (https://www.twitonomy.com).   Results The first month of #UroSoMe activity documented 1373 tweets/retweets by 1008 tweeters with 17698 mentions and 1003 replies. The #LiveCaseDiscussions was able to achieve a potential reach of 2,033,352 Twitter users. The top tweets mainly included cases presented by #UroSoMe working group members during #LiveCaseDiscussions. The twitonomy map showed participation from 214 geographical locations. The major groups of participants using the hashtag #UroSoMe were ‘Researcher/Academic’ and ‘Doctor’. The twitter account of #UroSoMe (@so_uro) has now grown to more than 1000 followers.   Conclusions Social media is an excellent platform for interaction amongst the urological community. The results demonstrated that #UroSoMe was able to achieve wide spread engagement from all over the world.

scholarly journals Infodemic Signal Detection During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Development of a Methodology for Identifying Potential Information Voids in Online Conversations

10.2196/30971 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e30971
Author(s):  
Tina D Purnat ◽  
Paolo Vacca ◽  
Christine Czerniak ◽  
Sarah Ball ◽  
Stefano Burzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
World Health ◽  
Aggregated Data ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Online Conversations ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Social Listening

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an infodemic: excess information, including false or misleading information, in digital and physical environments during an acute public health event. This infodemic is leading to confusion and risk-taking behaviors that can be harmful to health, as well as to mistrust in health authorities and public health responses. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working to develop tools to provide an evidence-based response to the infodemic, enabling prioritization of health response activities. Objective In this work, we aimed to develop a practical, structured approach to identify narratives in public online conversations on social media platforms where concerns or confusion exist or where narratives are gaining traction, thus providing actionable data to help the WHO prioritize its response efforts to address the COVID-19 infodemic. Methods We developed a taxonomy to filter global public conversations in English and French related to COVID-19 on social media into 5 categories with 35 subcategories. The taxonomy and its implementation were validated for retrieval precision and recall, and they were reviewed and adapted as language about the pandemic in online conversations changed over time. The aggregated data for each subcategory were analyzed on a weekly basis by volume, velocity, and presence of questions to detect signals of information voids with potential for confusion or where mis- or disinformation may thrive. A human analyst reviewed and identified potential information voids and sources of confusion, and quantitative data were used to provide insights on emerging narratives, influencers, and public reactions to COVID-19–related topics. Results A COVID-19 public health social listening taxonomy was developed, validated, and applied to filter relevant content for more focused analysis. A weekly analysis of public online conversations since March 23, 2020, enabled quantification of shifting interests in public health–related topics concerning the pandemic, and the analysis demonstrated recurring voids of verified health information. This approach therefore focuses on the detection of infodemic signals to generate actionable insights to rapidly inform decision-making for a more targeted and adaptive response, including risk communication. Conclusions This approach has been successfully applied to identify and analyze infodemic signals, particularly information voids, to inform the COVID-19 pandemic response. More broadly, the results have demonstrated the importance of ongoing monitoring and analysis of public online conversations, as information voids frequently recur and narratives shift over time. The approach is being piloted in individual countries and WHO regions to generate localized insights and actions; meanwhile, a pilot of an artificial intelligence–based social listening platform is using this taxonomy to aggregate and compare online conversations across 20 countries. Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the taxonomy and methodology may be adapted for fast deployment in future public health events, and they could form the basis of a routine social listening program for health preparedness and response planning.

scholarly journals Computers can’t give credit: How automatic attribution falls short in an online remixing community

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Monroy-Hernández ◽  
Jazmin Gonzalez-Rivero ◽  
danah boyd ◽  
Benjamin Mako Hill
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Community ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Technological Systems ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Content Reuse

In this paper, we explore the role that attribution plays in shaping user reactions to content reuse, or remixing, in a large user-generated content community. We present two studies using data from the Scratch online community – a social media platform where hundreds of thousands of young people share and remix animations and video games. First, we present a quantitative analysis that examines the ef- fects of a technological design intervention introducing au- tomated attribution of remixes on users’ reactions to being remixed. We compare this analysis to a parallel examination of “manual” credit-giving. Second, we present a qualita- tive analysis of twelve in-depth, semi-structured, interviews with Scratch participants on the subject of remixing and at- tribution. Results from both studies suggest that automatic attribution done by technological systems (i.e., the listing of names of contributors) plays a role that is distinct from, and less valuable than, credit which may superficially involve identical information but takes on new meaning when it is given by a human remixer. We discuss the implications of these findings for the designers of online communities and social media platforms.

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