# Social Media Perspectives on a Future HIV Vaccine: Mixed Methods Analysis

## TL;DR

This study analyzes public discussions about a future HIV vaccine on Twitter and TikTok, revealing themes of hope, trust in science, and concerns about misinformation.

## Contribution

The study provides a mixed-methods analysis of public discourse on a future HIV vaccine across two major social media platforms.

## Key findings

- Public discourse on both platforms expressed hope and trust in science, alongside concerns about institutional corruption and conspiracy theories.
- Tweets showed greater linguistic complexity and richer insights compared to shorter and context-dependent TikTok comments.
- Conspiracy theories and emotional appeals were common rhetorical strategies in the discussions.

## Abstract

As the prospect of an HIV vaccine nears reality, understanding public discourse around the vaccine is essential for informing communication strategies and addressing misinformation. Social media platforms are influential spaces where public narratives form, yet little research has examined discourse around an HIV vaccine, especially on TikTok.

This study aims to compare and characterize public discourse about a future HIV vaccine across Twitter (subsequently rebranded X) and TikTok, identifying prevailing themes, sentiments, and rhetorical strategies to inform public health communication.

From over 400,000 tweets and 65,000 TikTok comments, we analyzed the 1000 most-liked posts on each platform using natural language processing and coded the top 500 most-liked posts for rhetorical strategies, sentiment, and themes.

Our findings reveal expressions of hope and trust in science on both platforms, as well as concerns about institutional corruption and conspiracy theories, such as the belief that the HIV vaccine responds to harm caused by the COVID-19 vaccine. Tweets tended to be more linguistically complex and yielded richer insights, while TikTok comments were shorter and more difficult to interpret without video context. Key rhetorical strategies included conspiracy theories, post hoc reasoning, and emotional appeals.

This study underscores the need for platform-specific communication strategies to address misinformation and build public trust. The findings offer timely insights into emerging HIV vaccine discourse and highlight actionable opportunities for public health stakeholders to build trust and combat misinformation in advance of the vaccine rollout.