Publikationsdatenbank

Percepcja „koronawirusa” w polskim Internecie do czasu potwierdzenia pierwszego przypadku zakażenia SARS-CoV-2 w Polsce:
Perception of “coronavirus” on the Polish Internet until arrival of SARS-CoV-2 in Poland (2020)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Jarynowski, Andrzej

Wójta-Kempa, Monika

Belik, Vitaly (WE 16)

Quelle

Pielęgniarstwo i Zdrowie Publiczne : Nursing and Public Health

Bandzählung: 10

Heftzählung: 2

Seiten: 89 – 106

ISSN: 2451-1870

Sprache

Polnisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): http://www.pzp.umed.wroc.pl/en/article/2020/10/2/89/

DOI: 10.17219/pzp/120054

Kontakt

Institut für Veterinär-Epidemiologie und Biometrie

Königsweg 67
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 56034
epi@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Background:
Although the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, was discovered only in late 2019 in vicinity of the city of Wuhan (Hubei province, China), in January 2020 it already became a global threat to public health. The first case of the SARS-CoV-2 in Poland was confirmed as late as on March 4, 2020. The perception of pandemic risk in Polish society seems to overestimate the actual risk; therefore, there is a danger of development of adverse phenomena, such as panic.

Objectives:
Along with the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 infection, a need for an analysis of the perception of these problems in Poland arose. Such analysis should consider the variation of intensity of interest in events related to “coronavirus” over time. The presented analysis is of a preliminary and signaling nature, due to facts losing their timeliness and changing social moods.

Material and methods:
To study the perception of the COVID-19 virus in Polish society, we used quantitative analysis of the digital footprints on the Internet (Twitter, Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, and electronic media represented by Event Registry) from January 2020 (the first information about the virus) till March 3, 2020 (announcement of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Poland). Data mining, natural language processing and social network analysis techniques were used. Because of the diversity of target groups, representativeness and type of communication of each platform studied were analyzed.

Results:
Interest in the virus is wave-like and can be divided into 2 phases – “Chinese” and “Italian” – on all platforms. A rise in interest could be observed concerning the special Legal Act to combat COVID-2019 during a so-called commentary phase. Semantic analysis has shown that the topics most searched for are concentrated in threat, fear and prevention areas. The Twitter network reflects the Polish society and its worldview and political divisions most precisely. Two categories of internet users were distinguished: active and passive users, characterized by information needs and communication schemes different for each category. Key actors and influencers who can become leading agents of influence were identified.

Conclusions:
Traditional and social media not only reflect reality, but also create it. Monitoring of behavior of social media users can be utilized as a predictor of decisions concerning management of risk related to epidemics of infectious diseases.