Understanding Citizen Reactions and Ebola-Related Information Propagation on Social Media

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how citizens react and how Ebola-related information spreads on social media, providing insights into public perception and propagation dynamics during health crises.

Contribution

It offers a large-scale analysis of social media reactions, models information propagation, and examines spatial, temporal, and social properties of Ebola-related content.

Findings

Geotagged social media reveals citizen perceptions of Ebola.

Propagation models measure locality of information spread.

Analysis uncovers spatial, temporal, and social patterns of Ebola information.

Abstract

In severe outbreaks such as Ebola, bird flu and SARS, people share news, and their thoughts and responses regarding the outbreaks on social media. Understanding how people perceive the severe outbreaks, what their responses are, and what factors affect these responses become important. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive study of understanding and mining the spread of Ebola-related information on social media. In particular, we (i) conduct a large-scale data-driven analysis of geotagged social media messages to understand citizen reactions regarding Ebola; (ii) build information propagation models which measure locality of information; and (iii) analyze spatial, temporal and social properties of Ebola-related information. Our work provides new insights into Ebola outbreak by understanding citizen reactions and topic-based information propagation, as well as providing a foundation for analysis and response of future public health crises.