How do Twitter users react to TV broadcasts dedicated to vaccines in Italy?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Social Media Analysis
• Vaccinology

Background:

• Social media monitoring during vaccine-focused TV broadcasts offers insights into public vaccine confidence.
• Two Italian TV programs, one evidence-based (Presadiretta) and one featuring anti-vaccine voices (Virus), were analyzed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the sentiment of tweets reacting to two distinct vaccine-related TV broadcasts in Italy.
• To compare tweet and user characteristics between broadcasts with differing content on vaccines.

Main Methods:

• Collected 12,180 vaccine-related tweets from 5,447 users over an 8-day period around each broadcast.
• Classified tweet sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) and analyzed user characteristics.
• Employed regression models (Poisson, quasi-Poisson, logistic, quasi-binomial logistic) to test differences and associations.

Main Results:

• Overall sentiment was 50.4% positive, 37.7% negative, and 10.1% neutral.
• The positive-to-negative sentiment ratio was significantly higher for the broadcast including anti-vaccine personalities (Virus) compared to the evidence-based one (Presadiretta).
• Positive sentiment correlated with higher user engagement metrics (followers, friends, tweets) and recurrent user activity.

Conclusions:

• Twitter users exhibit strong reactions to vaccine-themed television programs.
• Positive sentiment, especially from highly active users, was prevalent.
• TV programs featuring anti-vaccine content can paradoxically generate positive sentiment on social media.
• Social media analysis during such broadcasts provides valuable data for public health institutions to tailor vaccine communication strategies.