Analyzing information sharing behaviors during stance formation on COVID-19 vaccination among Japanese Twitter users.

To prevent widespread epidemics such as influenza or measles, it is crucial to reach a broad acceptance of vaccinations while addressing vaccine hesitancy and refusal. To gain a deeper understanding of Japan's sharp increase in COVID-19 vaccination coverage, we performed an analysis on the post...

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Main Authors: Sho Cho, Shohei Hisamitsu, Hongshan Jin, Masashi Toyoda, Naoki Yoshinaga
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2024-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299935
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author Sho Cho
Shohei Hisamitsu
Hongshan Jin
Masashi Toyoda
Naoki Yoshinaga
author_facet Sho Cho
Shohei Hisamitsu
Hongshan Jin
Masashi Toyoda
Naoki Yoshinaga
author_sort Sho Cho
collection DOAJ
description To prevent widespread epidemics such as influenza or measles, it is crucial to reach a broad acceptance of vaccinations while addressing vaccine hesitancy and refusal. To gain a deeper understanding of Japan's sharp increase in COVID-19 vaccination coverage, we performed an analysis on the posts of Twitter users to investigate the formation of users' stances toward COVID-19 vaccines and information-sharing actions through the formation. We constructed a dataset of all Japanese posts mentioning vaccines for five months since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in Japan and carried out a stance detection task for all the users who wrote the posts by training an original deep neural network. Investigating the users' stance formations using this large dataset, it became clear that some neutral users became pro-vaccine, while almost no neutral users became anti-vaccine in Japan. Our examination of their information-sharing activities during a period prior to and subsequent to their stance formation clarified that users with certain types and specific types of websites were referred to. We hope that our results contribute to the increase in coverage of 2nd and further doses and following vaccinations in the future.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1932-6203
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publishDate 2024-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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spelling doaj-art-75d09c6ab886451987051fe9d20cbb142025-01-08T05:32:03ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032024-01-011912e029993510.1371/journal.pone.0299935Analyzing information sharing behaviors during stance formation on COVID-19 vaccination among Japanese Twitter users.Sho ChoShohei HisamitsuHongshan JinMasashi ToyodaNaoki YoshinagaTo prevent widespread epidemics such as influenza or measles, it is crucial to reach a broad acceptance of vaccinations while addressing vaccine hesitancy and refusal. To gain a deeper understanding of Japan's sharp increase in COVID-19 vaccination coverage, we performed an analysis on the posts of Twitter users to investigate the formation of users' stances toward COVID-19 vaccines and information-sharing actions through the formation. We constructed a dataset of all Japanese posts mentioning vaccines for five months since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in Japan and carried out a stance detection task for all the users who wrote the posts by training an original deep neural network. Investigating the users' stance formations using this large dataset, it became clear that some neutral users became pro-vaccine, while almost no neutral users became anti-vaccine in Japan. Our examination of their information-sharing activities during a period prior to and subsequent to their stance formation clarified that users with certain types and specific types of websites were referred to. We hope that our results contribute to the increase in coverage of 2nd and further doses and following vaccinations in the future.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299935
spellingShingle Sho Cho
Shohei Hisamitsu
Hongshan Jin
Masashi Toyoda
Naoki Yoshinaga
Analyzing information sharing behaviors during stance formation on COVID-19 vaccination among Japanese Twitter users.
PLoS ONE
title Analyzing information sharing behaviors during stance formation on COVID-19 vaccination among Japanese Twitter users.
title_full Analyzing information sharing behaviors during stance formation on COVID-19 vaccination among Japanese Twitter users.
title_fullStr Analyzing information sharing behaviors during stance formation on COVID-19 vaccination among Japanese Twitter users.
title_full_unstemmed Analyzing information sharing behaviors during stance formation on COVID-19 vaccination among Japanese Twitter users.
title_short Analyzing information sharing behaviors during stance formation on COVID-19 vaccination among Japanese Twitter users.
title_sort analyzing information sharing behaviors during stance formation on covid 19 vaccination among japanese twitter users
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299935
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