Anti-Asian sentiment the one major downfall in a suprisingly positive Twittersphere, Brock researchers find
Racialized, anti-Asian sentiment a stain on an otherwise positive Twittersphere, Brock study finds
It’s safe to say the world, and especially social media, has become a divided and negative place during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Or is it?
A Brock University study on social media behaviour at the onset of the pandemic may surprise people who think of Twitter as a cesspool of negativity. The study, led by assistant professor in health science Antony Chum, found Twitter users to be far more positive when discussing the pandemic.
“At the aggregate level…there were twice as many positive tweets than there were negative tweets,” Chum said.
His team analyzed 1.5 million COVID-related tweets published in Ontario between March 12 and Oct. 31 of last year. Running it through artificial intelligence software, each tweet was then coded as being either positive, neutral, or negative, and given a score between +1 (very positive) and -1 (very negative).
The results showed a surprising amount of positivity on Twitter, with posts like “I really hope the silver lining of COVID 19 is people being kind to each other. We’re all in this together” (scored +0.73 by the AI) being much more common than many would expect.
Chum and his team – graduate students Andrew Nielsen and Zachary Bellows, research associate Eddie Farrell, software engineer Pierre-Nicolas Durette, professor Gerald Cupchik from the University of Toronto and assistant professor Juan M. Banda from Georgia State University – conducted the study as a way to take the pulse of Ontarians during the early months of the pandemic. It could also have a practical use.
“We need to calibrate the public health messaging so we can alleviate any sort of fears or address controversial policies in the public health communication,” he said.
For the most part, announcements of additional restrictions only increased the volume of tweets, but didn’t increase the negativity.
“While there was a lot more discussion in general, we found that, overall, there weren’t too many people up in arms on either side,” Bellows said.
Negativity did increase more with full provincial lockdowns than partial lockdowns and higher case counts led to increased negativity. For each 100 additional new cases per day, negativity increased by three per cent.
But on the whole, Twitter wasn’t the bastion of the angry it can be made out to be, according to their findings.
That doesn’t mean the results were all sunshine and roses. When it came to negativity, Chum said many of the tweets were quite toxic, and often took on a racialized tone.
“I think those tweets definitely stand out, it’s easy to see the negativity,” he said.
Chum said those who use social media should be mindful of what is pushed out onto those platforms and support groups who get targeted.
“Stay positive and also be mindful of when there’s negative sentiments out there, especially when they’re targeting specific racialized groups,” he said.
Saleh Waziruddin, with the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association, agreed.
“To counter it, it would be good if when people saw that they spoke up about it and to kind of counter the people (who are spreading racist messages)," he said.
He said people think they can get away with anti-Asian comments right now and people he's talked to experience it in their everyday travels.
For those experiencing anti-Asian racism, he said people can stand up if they're willing to risk the backlash. But getting support from others can go a long way.
"Even privately messaging them and asking them to speak up that would help create a safe space for everybody.”
The Brock team has continued to collect and analyze data with a plan to publish more reports, including the sentiment to additional lockdowns over the winter and spring and the rollout of vaccinations.
Story Behind the Story
Though the world may seem more divided and angry, the Brock study paints a more positive picture. Reporter Luke Edwards investigated to see what's really happening and where the negativity is most acutely felt.
