Decision-Making and Systems Architecture Laboratory

Vaccine-related advertising in the Facebook Ad Archive

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Machine Learning Classifiers for Socio-Demographics of Social Media Users: Limitations and Possibilities

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 13:00:00 -0400

Background: Social media analyses of health behaviors, such as vaccination, have shown significant promise for surveillance. However, existing research, both quantitative and qualitiative, suggests that health behaviors varies significantly with socio-demographic factors, particularly race, ethnicity, and gender. Often, these factors are not explicitly disclosed on social media platforms and must instead be inferred, raising the possibility of methodological bias. This session examines existing tools and methodologies used to infer socio-demographics of social media users. Methods: We survey several socio-demographic classifiers that work with Twitter and Reddit data. These classifiers use features including users’ language patterns, follower behaviors, and choice of names. These classifiers predict labels including users’ gender, race and ethnicity, or filter out social media accounts run by organizations.

Results: We explain how the data for these classifiers is collected, how the classification models are trained, and how they could be applied to public health research. We in particular discuss the limitations that these classifiers have, including possible methodological bias introduced by the challenges of large-scale data collection of social media users’ demographic information.

Discussion: Health behaviors vary with socio-demographic factors, which are challenging to measure on social media platforms. Machine learning classification of socio-demographics is possible, but requires interdisciplinary considerations.

Elites and foreign actors among the alt-right: The Gab social media platform

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Can online self-reports assist in real-time identification of influenza vaccination uptake? A cross-sectional study of influenza vaccine-related tweets in the USA, 2013–2017

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Discordance Between Human Papillomavirus Twitter Images and Disparities in Human Papillomavirus Risk and Disease in the United States: Mixed-Methods Analysis

Sat, 01 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Gab: The Alt-Right Social Media Platform

Sun, 01 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Monitoring Real-time Spatial Public Health Discussions in the Context of Vaccine Hesitancy

Sat, 04 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

How Does Twitter User Behavior Vary Across Demographic Groups?

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Vaccine opponents' use of Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election: Implications for practice and policy

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Examining Patterns of Influenza Vaccination in Social Media

Wed, 01 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Effective vaccine communication during the disneyland measles outbreak

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Zika vaccine misconceptions: A social media analysis

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Understanding Vaccine Refusal: Why We Need Social Media Now

Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Understanding Vaccine Refusal: Why we need social media now

Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Towards Real-Time Measurement of Public Epidemic Awareness: Monitoring Influenza Awareness through Twitter

Tue, 01 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Using Social Media to Perform Local Influenza Surveillance in an Inner City Hospital: A Retrospective Observational Study

Fri, 29 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Worldwide Influenza Surveillance through Twitter

Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Using Social Media to Perform Local Influenza Surveillance in an Inner-City Hospital: A Retrospective Observational Study

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Twitter Improves Influenza Forecasting

Tue, 28 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Twitter Improves Influenza Forecasting

Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Twitter: Big data opportunities

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

HealthTweets. org: A Platform for Public Health Surveillance using Twitter

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

National and Local Influenza Surveillance Through Twitter: An Analysis of the 2012-2013 Influenza Epidemic

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

National and Local Influenza Surveillance through Twitter: An Analysis of the 2012-2013 Influenza Epidemic

Sun, 01 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000