The Evolution of Public Sentiments During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Comparisons of India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Evolution of Public Sentiments During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Comparisons of India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
复制标题
DOI：
10.2196/31473
复制
发表时间：
2022-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
公众情绪是危机应对的重要指标，需要在紧急情况之间取得平衡，同时避免加剧恐慌或表现出过度自信。鉴于 COVID-19 大流行的迅速蔓延，各国政府已在全国范围内制定了各种针对该疾病的措施，社交媒体平台为全球人口提供了前所未有的沟通空间。本研究旨在通过比较当前大流行期间印度、新加坡、韩国、英国和美国的 Twitter 数据，研究并提供国家层面社交媒体上公众情绪演变的宏观叙述。分析了 2020 年 1 月 28 日至 2021 年 4 月 28 日期间，来自 5 个国家以“wuhan”、“corona”、“nCov”和“covid”作为搜索关键词的总共 67,363,091 条关于 COVID-19 的 Twitter 帖子。比较了各国与疾病里程碑和公共卫生指令相关的情绪变化（“非常消极”、“消极”、“中性或混合”、“积极”、“非常积极”）。针对具体国家的评估显示，在全球大流行初期，所有 5 个国家的负面情绪均占主导地位。然而，这五个国家，尤其是亚洲国家，出现了不同程度的积极情绪，包括希望、韧性和支持。在大流行的下一阶段，印度、新加坡和韩国面临着不断升级的COVID-19病例浪潮，导致负面情绪，但积极情绪同时出现。相比之下，尽管英国和美国在宣布国家公共紧急状态后负面情绪大幅上升，但强烈的平行正面情绪却缓慢浮现。我们对面临类似疫情担忧的国家情绪的研究结果表明，政府在政策和沟通方面的应对行动与公众情绪趋势之间存在潜在关联。总体而言，政府危机沟通采取更加协调一致的方式似乎与公众对 COVID-19 大流行的演变更加稳定、波动性较小的情绪相关。
Public sentiments are an important indicator of crisis response, with the need to balance exigency without adding to panic or projecting overconfidence. Given the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have enacted various nationwide measures against the disease with social media platforms providing the previously unparalleled communication space for the global populations. This research aims to examine and provide a macro-level narrative of the evolution of public sentiments on social media at national levels, by comparing Twitter data from India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the current pandemic. A total of 67,363,091 Twitter posts on COVID-19 from January 28, 2020, to April 28, 2021, were analyzed from the 5 countries with “wuhan,” “corona,” “nCov,” and “covid” as search keywords. Change in sentiments (“very negative,” “negative,” “neutral or mixed,” “positive,” “very positive”) were compared between countries in connection with disease milestones and public health directives. Country-specific assessments show that negative sentiments were predominant across all 5 countries during the initial period of the global pandemic. However, positive sentiments encompassing hope, resilience, and support arose at differing intensities across the 5 countries, particularly in Asian countries. In the next stage of the pandemic, India, Singapore, and South Korea faced escalating waves of COVID-19 cases, resulting in negative sentiments, but positive sentiments appeared simultaneously. In contrast, although negative sentiments in the United Kingdom and the United States increased substantially after the declaration of a national public emergency, strong parallel positive sentiments were slow to surface. Our findings on sentiments across countries facing similar outbreak concerns suggest potential associations between government response actions both in terms of policy and communications, and public sentiment trends. Overall, a more concerted approach to government crisis communication appears to be associated with more stable and less volatile public sentiments over the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.