What Articles On Measles Europeans Share On Social Media: Text Analysis Study

Wawrzuta, Dominik; Jaworski, Mariusz; Gotlib, Joanna; Panczyk, Mariusz

BACKGROUND: Despite the existence of an effective vaccine, measles is still threatening the health and lives of many Europeans. Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the uptake of measles vaccines declined; as a result, after the pandemic, European societies will have to increase and restore the extent of vaccination coverage. As social media are one of the main causes of vaccine hesitancy, knowledge of the nature of information pertaining to measles that is shared on social media can probably help create educational campaigns. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to define the characteristics of European measles news shared on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest) during 2017-2019. METHODS: We downloaded and translated into English 10,305 articles on measles published in the member countries of the European Union. Using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation method, we found the main topics of those articles and estimated the sentiments expressed in them. Finally, we used linear regression to determine the factors informing the number of shares for an article on social media. RESULTS: We found that European media mostly discuss measles only in the context of local European events. Articles containing educational information and describing world outbreaks appear less frequently. The most common emotions in the study's news dataset are fear and trust. Yet, it was found that readers are more likely to share information on educational topics and the situation in Germany, Ukraine, Italy, and Samoa. A high amount of anger, joy, and sadness in the text was also associated with a higher number of shares. CONCLUSIONS: We identified the features of articles that trigger an increased number of shares on social media. Social media users prefer to share educational news over informational ones. The right emotional content in the article can also increase the willingness of social media users to share it. Effective media content promoting measles vaccination should contain educational or scientific information, as well as specific emotions (anger, joy, or sadness). Articles created following these conditions offer the best chance of reaching thousands of readers on social media and disseminating a vital message to a wider audience.