Evolution of Public Sentiments During COVID-19 Pandemic
Bian Xiaohui1(),Xu Tong2
1School of Management, Anhui University, Hefei 230039, China 2School of Computer Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
[Objective] This study analyzes the social media posts during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to reveal the temporal and spatial differences of public opinion, the sentiment evolution under different circumstances, as well as the trans-regional spreading of the public sentiments. [Methods] Firstly, we utilized the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model to generate the latent topics and related keyword groups, which also analyzed public sentiment evolutions from the perspectives of global and individual topics. Then, we described the trans-regional spread of public sentiments based on the social spread model adapted from the classic Independent Cascade Model. [Results] The new model summarized the general rules of the temporal evolution and spatial difference, as well as the impacts of distance to the epidemic centers and the financial levels. We also found two different types of topics indicating reasons for popularity and sentiment differences, as well as multi-view connections among these topics. The strength of trans-regional sentiment spread could be affected by both regional distance and epidemic situation. [Limitations] The new framework could not process the multimodal data. [Conclusions] The proposed model helps the local government make better strategies according to specific conditions, and pay more attention to the impacts of related events. They should also strengthen regional cooperation and coordination for controlling pandemics and monitoring public sentiments.
An L, Yu C M, Lin X, et al. Topical Evolution Patterns and Temporal Trends of Microblogs on Public Health Emergencies[J]. Online Information Review, 2018, 42(6): 821-846.
doi: 10.1108/OIR-04-2016-0100
[2]
Palen L, Anderson K M. Crisis Informatics—New Data for Extraordinary Times[J]. Science, 2016, 353(6296): 224-225.
doi: 10.1126/science.aag2579
Lu Jia, Liu Xinchuan, Li Boliang. The Spreading Mechanism of Reason and Emotion in Public Discussions on Social Media—An Empirical Study Based on Sina Weibo[J]. Modern Communication(Journal of Communication University of China), 2017, 39(2): 73-79.)
[4]
Reuter C, Spielhofer T. Towards Social Resilience: A Quantitative and Qualitative Survey on Citizens’ Perception of Social Media in Emergencies in Europe[J]. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2017, 121: 168-180.
doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2016.07.038
( Chen Yehua, Zhang Xiaoqian. Research on Netizen Group Emotion Contagion Model and the Simulation Under Network Group Emergencies[J]. Information Science, 2018, 36(3): 151-156.)
( Lu Yanxia, Wu Di, Huang Chuanlin. An Analysis of Micro-Blog Users’ Emotions in Public Emergencies Based on Big Data[J]. Software Engineering, 2017, 20(1): 45-48.)
( Zhang Xue, Chen An. The Monitoring and Measurement of Mood of Anger Based on Network Review of News[J]. Science & Technology for Development, 2010(9): 44-49.)
[9]
Fan R, Zhao J C, Chen Y, et al. Anger is More Influential than Joy: Sentiment Correlation in Weibo[J]. PLoS One, 2014, 9(10): e110184.
[10]
李聪. 问题疫苗事件微博传播中的情绪与表达[D]. 武汉: 武汉大学, 2019.
[10]
( Li Cong. Emotions and Expressions in Weibo Communication of Vaccine Events[D]. Wuhan: Wuhan University, 2019.)
Chen Xi, Fei Qi, Li Wei. A Preliminary Research on Urban Mass Panic Based on Computational Methods for Experiment[J]. Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology(Social Science Edition), 2009, 23(2): 34-37.)
( An Lu, Wu Lin. An Integrated Analysis of Topical and Emotional Evolution of Microblog Public Opinions on Public Emergencies[J]. Library and Information Service, 2017, 61(15): 120-129.)
doi: 10.13266/j.issn.0252-3116.2017.15.014
( Ye Yonghao, Xu Yan, Zhu Yijie, et al. The Characteristics of Moral Emotions of Chinese Netizens Towards an Anthropogenic Hazard: A Sentiment Analysis on Weibo[J]. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 2016, 48(3): 290-304.)
doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.00290
[15]
Trope Y, Liberman N. Construal-Level Theory of Psychological Distance[J]. Psychological Review, 2010, 117(2): 440-463.
doi: 10.1037/a0018963
( Qian Mingyi, Ye Dongmei, Dong Wei, et al. Behaviour, Cognition and Emotion of the Public in Beijing Towards SARS[J]. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 2003, 17(8): 515-520.)
[17]
van Lent L G, Sungur H, Kunneman F A, et al. Measuring Public Attention and Fear for Ebola Using Twitter[J]. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2017, 19(6): e193.
doi: 10.2196/jmir.7219
( Zhang Fang, Gan Haochen. On the Influence of Temporal and Spatial Distance from Epidemic on Public Sentiment: A Computational Analysis Based on Panel Data of Weibo Text About COVID-19[J]. Journalism and Mass Communication Monthly, 2020(6): 39-49.)
[19]
唐超. 网络情绪演进的实证研究[J]. 情报杂志, 2012, 31(10): 48-52.
[19]
( Tang Chao. Empirical Research on the Evolution of Online Emotion[J]. Journal of Intelligence, 2012, 31(10): 48-52.)
( Zhao Xiaohang. The Study on Government News Release in the Era of Post-Microblog Based on Sentiment Analysis and Subject Analysis: A Case Study of the “Tianjin Explosion” on Sina Microblog[J]. Library and Information Service, 2016, 60(20): 104-111.)
doi: 10.13266/j.issn.0252-3116.2016.20.013
( Ren Zhongjie, Zhang Peng, Li Sicheng, et al. Analysis of Emotion Evolution of Emergencies Based on Weibo Data Mining: Taking “8·12 Accident in Tianjin” as an Example[J]. Journal of Intelligence, 2019, 38(2): 140-148.)
[23]
陈建美. 中文情感词汇本体的构建及其应用[D]. 大连: 大连理工大学, 2009.
[23]
( Chen Jianmei. The Construction and Application of Chinese Emotion Word Ontology[D]. Dalian: Dalian University of Technology, 2009.)
( Liu Yunzhong, Lin Yaping, Chen Zhiping. Text Information Extraction Based on Hidden Markov Model[J]. Acta Simulata Systematica Sinica, 2004, 16(3): 507-510.)
[25]
Blei D M, Ng A Y, Jordan M I. Latent Dirichlet Allocation[J]. Journal of Machine Learning Research, 2003, 3: 993-1022.
( Li Gang, Chen Sijing, Mao Jin, et al. Spatio-Temporal Comparison of Microblog Trending Topics on Natural Disasters[J]. Data Analysis and Knowledge Discovery, 2019, 3(11): 1-15.)
[27]
Xu T, Zhu H S, Zhao X Y, et al. Taxi Driving Behavior Analysis in Latent Vehicle-to-Vehicle Networks: A Social Influence Perspective[C]// Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. 2016: 1285-1294.
[28]
Kempe D, Kleinberg J, Tardos É. Maximizing the Spread of Influence Through a Social Network[C]// Proceedings of the 9th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. 2003: 137-146.