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Emotional profiling and cognitive networks unravel how mainstream and alternative press framed AstraZeneca, Pfizer and COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.
Semeraro, Alfonso; Vilella, Salvatore; Ruffo, Giancarlo; Stella, Massimo.
  • Semeraro A; Computer Science Department, University of Turin, 10149, Turin, Italy.
  • Vilella S; Computer Science Department, University of Turin, 10149, Turin, Italy.
  • Ruffo G; Computer Science Department, University of Turin, 10149, Turin, Italy.
  • Stella M; CogNosco Lab, Department of Computer Science, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK. m.stella@exeter.ac.uk.
Sci Rep ; 12(1): 14445, 2022 08 24.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2000928
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 vaccines have been largely debated by the press. To understand how mainstream and alternative media debated vaccines, we introduce a paradigm reconstructing time-evolving narrative frames via cognitive networks and natural language processing. We study Italian news articles massively re-shared on Facebook/Twitter (up to 5 million times), covering 5745 vaccine-related news from 17 news outlets over 8 months. We find consistently high trust/anticipation and low disgust in the way mainstream sources framed "vaccine/vaccino". These emotions were crucially missing in alternative outlets. News titles from alternative sources framed "AstraZeneca" with sadness, absent in mainstream titles. Initially, mainstream news linked mostly "Pfizer" with side effects (e.g. "allergy", "reaction", "fever"). With the temporary suspension of "AstraZeneca", negative associations shifted Mainstream titles prominently linked "AstraZeneca" with side effects, while "Pfizer" underwent a positive valence shift, linked to its higher efficacy. Simultaneously, thrombosis and fearful conceptual associations entered the frame of vaccines, while death changed context, i.e. rather than hopefully preventing deaths, vaccines could be reported as potential causes of death, increasing fear. Our findings expose crucial aspects of the emotional narratives around COVID-19 vaccines adopted by the press, highlighting the need to understand how alternative and mainstream media report vaccination news.
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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Vaccines / Social Media / COVID-19 Vaccines / COVID-19 Type of study: Qualitative research Topics: Vaccines Limits: Humans Language: English Journal: Sci Rep Year: 2022 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: S41598-022-18472-6

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Vaccines / Social Media / COVID-19 Vaccines / COVID-19 Type of study: Qualitative research Topics: Vaccines Limits: Humans Language: English Journal: Sci Rep Year: 2022 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: S41598-022-18472-6