Zika discourse in the Americas: A multilingual topic analysis of Twitter

Pruss, Dasha; Daughton, Ashlynn Rae; Paul, Michael J.; Fujinuma, Yoshinari; Arnot, Brad; Szafir, Danielle Albers; Boyd-Graber, Jordan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0216922

Title: Zika discourse in the Americas: A multilingual topic analysis of Twitter

Journal Article · 23 May 2019 · PLoS ONE

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216922 · OSTI ID:1526952

Pruss, Dasha ^[1];

^[2];

^[3]; Fujinuma, Yoshinari ^[3]; Arnot, Brad ^[3]; Szafir, Danielle Albers ^[3]; Boyd-Graber, Jordan ^[4]

Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)

Article Authors Metrics Comments Media Coverage Abstract Introduction Materials and methods Results Discussion Acknowledgments References Reader Comments (0) Media Coverage (0) Figures Abstract This work examines Twitter discussion surrounding the 2015 outbreak of Zika, a virus that is most often mild but has been associated with serious birth defects and neurological syndromes. We introduce and analyze a collection of 3.9 million tweets mentioning Zika geolocated to North and South America, where the virus is most prevalent. Using a multilingual topic model, we automatically identify and extract the key topics of discussion across the dataset in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. We examine the variation in Twitter activity across time and location, finding that rises in activity tend to follow to major events, and geographic rates of Zika-related discussion are moderately correlated with Zika incidence (ρ = .398).

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 1526952

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--18-25885

Journal Information:: PLoS ONE, Journal Name: PLoS ONE Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 14; ISSN 1932-6203

Publisher:: Public Library of ScienceCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Zika in Twitter: Temporal Variations of Locations, Actors, and Concepts Stefanidis, Anthony; Vraga, Emily; Lamprianidis, Georgios JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, Vol. 3, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.2196/publichealth.6925	journal	January 2017
What Are People Tweeting About Zika? An Exploratory Study Concerning Its Symptoms, Treatment, Transmission, and Prevention Miller, Michele; Banerjee, Tanvi; Muppalla, Roopteja JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, Vol. 3, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.2196/publichealth.7157	journal	January 2017
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