Title
Disease detection or public opinion reflection? content analysis of tweets, other social media, and online newspapers during the measles outbreak in the Netherlands in 2013
Author
Mollema, L.
Harmsen, I.A.
Broekhuizen, E.
Clijnk, R.
de Melker, H.
Paulussen, T.
Kok, G.
Ruiter, R.
Das, E.
Publication year
2015
Abstract
Background: In May 2013, a measles outbreak began in the Netherlands among Orthodox Protestants who often refuse vaccination for religious reasons. Objective: Our aim was to compare the number of messages expressed on Twitter and other social media during the measles outbreak with the number of online news articles and the number of reported measles cases to answer the question if and when social media reflect public opinion patterns versus disease patterns. Methods: We analyzed measles-related tweets, other social media messages, and online newspaper articles over a 7-month period (April 15 to November 11, 2013) with regard to topic and sentiment. Thematic analysis was used to structure and analyze the topics. Results: There was a stronger correlation between the weekly number of social media messages and the weekly number of online news articles (P
Subject
ELSS - Earth, Life and Social Sciences
Life
Healthy Living
Healthy for Life
Infectious disease outbreak
Internet
Measles
Netherlands
Vaccination
Web 2.0
LS - Life Style
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:033a00c4-df06-4a6f-a65f-f938b7764743
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3863
TNO identifier
526098
ISSN
1438-8871
Source
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17 (17)
Document type
article