Ahmed, W., Bath, P.A. orcid.org/0000-0002-6310-7396, Sbaffi, L. et al. (1 more author) (2018) Measuring the effect of public health campaigns on Twitter: the case of World Autism Awareness Day. In: Transforming Digital Worlds. iConference 2018: Transforming Digital Worlds, 25-28 Mar 2018, Sheffield, UK. Lecture Notes in Computer Science . Springer Verlag , pp. 10-16.
Abstract
Mass media campaigns are traditional methods of raising public awareness in order to reinforce positive behaviors and beliefs. However, social media platforms such as Twitter have the potential to offer an additional route into raising awareness of general and specific health conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which a public health campaign, World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD), could increase Twitter activity and influence the average sentiment on Twitter, and to discover the types of information that was shared on the platform during a targeted awareness campaign. This study gathered over 2,315,283 tweets in a two-month period. Evidence suggests that the autism campaign, WAAD, was successful in raising awareness on Twitter, as an increase in both the volume of tweets and level of positive sentiment were observed during this time. In addition, a framework for assessing the success of health campaigns was developed. Further work is required on this topic to determine whether health campaigns have any long lasting impact on Twitter users.
Metadata
Item Type: | Proceedings Paper |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Springer Verlag. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Social media; Health campaigns; Twitter |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Information School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Feb 2018 13:04 |
Last Modified: | 18 Apr 2018 13:25 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78105-1_2 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Series Name: | Lecture Notes in Computer Science |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/978-3-319-78105-1_2 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:127215 |