The Dramatic Increase in Anti-Vaccine Discourses During the Covid-19 Pandemic: a Social Network Analysis of Twitter

dc.authorid HENGIRMEN, ENGIN/0000-0001-9330-3251
dc.authorid DURMAZ, Nihal/0000-0002-3079-1769
dc.authorscopusid 57188678727
dc.authorscopusid 57564001500
dc.authorwosid DURMAZ, Nihal/AAV-7433-2021
dc.contributor.author Durmaz, Nihal
dc.contributor.author Hengirmen, Engin
dc.date.accessioned 2025-01-11T13:00:32Z
dc.date.available 2025-01-11T13:00:32Z
dc.date.issued 2022
dc.department Fenerbahçe University en_US
dc.department-temp [Durmaz, Nihal] Gulhane Training & Res Hosp, Dept Pediat, Ankara, Turkey; [Hengirmen, Engin] Fenerbahce Univ, Management Informat Syst, Istanbul, Turkey en_US
dc.description HENGIRMEN, ENGIN/0000-0001-9330-3251; DURMAZ, Nihal/0000-0002-3079-1769 en_US
dc.description.abstract Background/Aim The first case of COVID-19 in Turkey was officially recorded on March 11, 2020. Social media use increased worldwide, as well as in Turkey, during the pandemic, and conspiracy theories/fake news about medical complications of vaccines spread throughout the world. The aim of this study was to identify community interactions related to vaccines and to identify key influences/influencers before and after the pandemic using social network data from Twitter. Materials and methods Two datasets, including tweets about vaccinations before and after COVID-19 in Turkey, were collected. Social networks were created based on interactions (mentions) between Twitter users. Users and their influence were scored based on social network analysis and parameters that included in-degree and betweenness centrality. Results In the pre-COVID-19 network, media figures and authors who had anti-vaccine views were the most influential users. In the post-COVID-19 network, the Turkish minister of health, the was the most influential figure. The vaccine network was observed to be growing rapidly after COVID-19, and the physicians and authors who had opinions about mandatory vaccinations received a great deal of reaction. One-way communication between influencers and other users in the network was determined. Conclusions This study shows the effectiveness and usefulness of large social media data for understanding public opinion on public health and vaccination in Turkey. The current study was completed before the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine in Turkey. We anticipated that social network analysis would help reduce the "infodemic" before administering the vaccine and would also help public health workers act more proactively in this regard. en_US
dc.description.woscitationindex Science Citation Index Expanded - Social Science Citation Index
dc.identifier.citation 25
dc.identifier.doi 10.1080/21645515.2021.2025008
dc.identifier.issn 2164-5515
dc.identifier.issn 2164-554X
dc.identifier.issue 1 en_US
dc.identifier.pmid 35113767
dc.identifier.scopus 2-s2.0-85127706322
dc.identifier.scopusquality Q2
dc.identifier.uri https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2021.2025008
dc.identifier.uri https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14627/25
dc.identifier.volume 18 en_US
dc.identifier.wos WOS:000750770500001
dc.identifier.wosquality Q1
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Taylor & Francis inc en_US
dc.relation.publicationcategory Makale - Uluslararası Hakemli Dergi - Kurum Öğretim Elemanı en_US
dc.rights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess en_US
dc.scopus.citedbyCount 29
dc.subject Anti-Vaccine en_US
dc.subject Covid-19 en_US
dc.subject Pandemic en_US
dc.subject Social Network en_US
dc.subject Twitter en_US
dc.title The Dramatic Increase in Anti-Vaccine Discourses During the Covid-19 Pandemic: a Social Network Analysis of Twitter en_US
dc.type Article en_US
dc.wos.citedbyCount 29
dspace.entity.type Publication

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