title: Chinese Social Media Reaction to Information about 42 Notifiable Infectious Diseases.
abstract: This study aimed to identify what information triggered social media users' responses regarding infectious diseases. Chinese microblogs in 2012 regarding 42 infectious diseases were obtained through a keyword search in the Weiboscope database. Qualitative content analysis was performed for the posts pertinent to each keyword of the day of the year with the highest daily count. Similar posts were grouped and coded. We identified five categories of information that increased microblog traffic pertaining to infectious diseases: news of an outbreak or a case; health education/information; alternative health information/Traditional Chinese Medicine; commercial advertisement/entertainment; and social issues. News unrelated to the specified infectious diseases also led to elevated microblog traffic. Our study showcases the diverse contexts from which increased social media traffic occur. Our results will facilitate better health communication as causes underlying increased social media traffic are revealed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, 30460-8015, United States of America.
authors.forename: Isaac Chun-Hai
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, 30460-8015, United States of America.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, 30460-8015, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jingxian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30605, United States of America.
authors.forename: Yuchen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ying
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, 30460-8015, United States of America.
authors.forename: Braydon James
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Schaible
authors.affiliation: Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Cynthia Mengxi
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602, United States of America.
authors.forename: Zion Tsz Ho
authors.initials: ZT
authors.lastname: Tse
authors.affiliation: Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: King-Wa
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Fu
mesh_terms: D057218:Blogging; D002681:China; D003141:Communicable Diseases; D018563:Disease Notification; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D058015:Health Communication; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D061108:Social Media