Open AccessRapid assessment of communication consistency: sentiment analysis of public health briefings during the COVID-19 pandemic
Author(s) -
Okan Bulut,
AUTHOR_ID,
Cheryl Poth
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
aims public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2327-8994
DOI - 10.3934/publichealth.2022020
Subject(s) - pandemic , public health , consistency (knowledge bases) , covid-19 , mass media , political science , psychology , medicine , public relations , computer science , law , nursing , artificial intelligence , pathology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Background A key component of the initial public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic involved the use of mass media briefings led by public health officials to communicate updates during a time of great uncertainty and rapidly changing information. This study aims to examine the consistency of communications expressed during the public health briefings to generate novel insights about the type, direction, and strength of public health messages. The data source included 131 readily accessible public health briefings alongside the provincial and national new confirmed case counts during the first two waves of rapidly increasing cases during the pandemic in Alberta, Canada. We employed sentiment analysis as a text mining technique to explore the types and frequency of words in public health briefings conveying positive and negative sentiments. Using statistical analyses and data visualizations, we examined how public health messaging shifted with case trends. Results Our findings indicate consistent public health messaging in terms of sentiments regardless of case count fluctuations, an association of specific words with conveying positive and negative sentiments, and a focus on particular message patterns at different points during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate the practical implications and methodological advantages of using sentiment analysis as a data analytics tool for rapidly and objectively assessing the consistency of health communications during a public health crisis.