Relationships Among Tweets Related to Radiation: Visualization Using Co-Occurring Networks
Ayako Yagahara1,2, Keiri Hanai3, Shin Hasegawa4,5
1Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University of Science, Sapporo, Japan.
JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
|March 18, 2018
Summary
Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, citizen fears evolved from immediate concerns about the event to broader worries about health and the economy. Understanding these evolving fears is crucial for effective government risk communication.
Area of Science:
- Disaster communication
- Social media analysis
- Radiation risk perception
Background:
- Increased public fear of radiation post-Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident (March 11, 2011).
- Necessity of effective government risk communication during nuclear incidents.
- Understanding citizen fears is vital for appropriate public information dissemination.
Purpose of the Study:
- To track the progression of public fear and concerns after the Fukushima nuclear accident.
- To analyze radiation-related discussions on social media to gauge public sentiment.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of ~1.5 million Japanese tweets mentioning "radiation," "radioactivity," or "radioactive substance" (March 11-17, 2011).
- Extraction and morphological analysis of tweets expressing fear.
- Visualization of citizen fears using co-occurrence networks and Jaccard coefficients to show relationship strengths.
Main Results:
- Initial high interest in "nuclear power plant" (March 11-12) shifted to "health" (March 12-13), "media" (March 13-14), and "economy" (March 15).
- Later interest (March 16-17) focused on "lack of goods in the afflicted area."
- Co-occurrence networks revealed trending topics, citizen fears, and opinions directed at the government.
Conclusions:
- Twitter data effectively captured evolving citizen concerns post-Fukushima nuclear accident.
- Public interest shifted from the event itself to life-impacting issues like health and economy.
- Insights into public fears and information dissemination aid future risk communication strategies.
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