Semantic Network Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccine Related Text from Reddit

  • Chad A. Melton
  • , Jintae Bae
  • , Olufunto A. Olusanya
  • , Jon Hael Brenas
  • , Eun Kyong Shin
  • , Arash Shaban-Nejad

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Vaccinations are critical and effective in resolving the current pandemic. With the highly transmissible and deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19), a delay in acceptance, or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services poses a significant public health threat. Moreover, vaccine-related hesitancy, mis/disinformation, and anti-vaccination discourse are hindering the rapid uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. It is urgent to examine how anti-vaccine sentiment and behavior spread online to influence vaccine acceptance. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy diffusion networks in an online Reddit community within the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also sought to assess the anti-vaccine discourse evolution in language content and style. Overall, our study findings could help facilitate and promote efficient messaging strategies/campaigns to improve vaccination rates.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationStudies in Computational Intelligence
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages257-266
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Publication series

NameStudies in Computational Intelligence
Volume1060
ISSN (Print)1860-949X
ISSN (Electronic)1860-9503

Keywords

  • COVID-19 vaccines
  • Misinformation
  • Online social media
  • Reddit
  • Semantic network analysis

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