Understand your pre-understandings.
While conducting qualitative research, it is paramount that the researcher maintains a vigilance of non-bias during analysis. In other words, did you remain aware of your pre-understandings, i.e., your own personal assumptions, professional background, and previous experiences and knowledge? For example, did you zero in on particular aspects of the interview on account of your profession (as an emergency doctor, emergency nurse, pre-hospital professional, etc.)? Did you assume the patient’s gender? Did your assumptions affect your analysis? How about aspects of culpability; did you assume that this patient was at fault or that this patient was a victim in the crash? Did this affect how you analysed the text?
Staying aware of one’s pre-understandings is exactly as difficult as it sounds. But, it is possible and it is requisite. Focus on putting yourself and your pre-understandings in a holding pattern while you approach your data with an openness and expectation of finding new perspectives. That is the key: expect the new and be prepared to be surprised. If something in your data feels unusual, is different from what you know, atypical, or even odd – don’t by-pass it as “wrong”. Your reactions and intuitive responses are letting you know that here is something to pay extra attention to, besides the more comfortable condensing and coding of more easily recognisable meaning units.
Intuition is a great asset in qualitative analysis and not to be dismissed as “unscientific”. Intuition results from tacit knowledge. Just as tacit knowledge is a hallmark of great clinicians [11] , [12] ; it is also an invaluable tool in analysis work [13] . Literally, take note of your gut reactions and intuitive guidance and remember to write these down! These notes often form a framework of possible avenues for further analysis and are especially helpful as you lift the analysis to higher levels of abstraction; from meaning units to condensed meaning units, to codes, to categories and then to the highest level of abstraction in content analysis, themes.
All too often, the novice gets overwhelmed by interview material that deals with the general subject matter of the interview, but doesn’t seem to answer the research question. Don’t be too quick to consider such text as off topic or dross [6] . There is often data that, although not seeming to match the study aim precisely, is still important for illuminating the problem area. This can be seen in our practical example about exploring patients’ experiences of being admitted into the emergency centre. Initially the participant is describing the accident itself. While not directly answering the research question, the description is important for understanding the context of the experience of being admitted into the emergency centre. It is very common that participants will “begin at the beginning” and prologue their narratives in order to create a context that sets the scene. This type of contextual data is vital for gaining a deepened understanding of participants’ experiences.
In our practical example, the participant begins by describing the crash and the rescue, i.e., experiences leading up to and prior to admission to the emergency centre. That is why we have chosen in our analysis to code the condensed meaning unit “Ambulance staff looked worried about all the blood” as “In the ambulance” and place it in the category “Reliving the rescue”. We did not choose to include this meaning unit in the categories specifically about admission to the emergency centre itself. Do you agree with our coding choice? Would you have chosen differently?
Another common problem for the novice is deciding how to code condensed meaning units when the unit can be labelled in several different ways. At this point researchers usually groan and wish they had thought to ask one of those classic follow-up questions like “Can you tell me a little bit more about that?” We have examples of two such coding conundrums in the exemplar, as can be seen in Table 3 (codes we conferred on) and Table 4 (codes we reached consensus on). Do you agree with our choices or would you have chosen different codes? Our best advice is to go back to your impressions of the whole and lean into your intuition when choosing codes that are most reasonable and best fit your data.
A typical problem area during categorisation, especially for the novice researcher, is overlap between content in more than one initial category, i.e., codes included in one category also seem to be a fit for another category. Overlap between initial categories is very likely an indication that the jump from code to category was too big, a problem not uncommon when the data is voluminous and/or very complex. In such cases, it can be helpful to first sort codes into narrower categories, so-called subcategories. Subcategories can then be reviewed for possibilities of further aggregation into categories. In the case of a problematic coding, it is advantageous to return to the meaning unit and check if the meaning unit itself fits the category or if you need to reconsider your preliminary coding.
It is not uncommon to be faced by thorny problems such as these during coding and categorisation. Here we would like to reiterate how valuable it is to have fellow researchers with whom you can discuss and reflect together with, in order to reach consensus on the best way forward in your data analysis. It is really advantageous to compare your analysis with meaning units, condensations, coding and categorisations done by another researcher on the same text. Have you identified the same meaning units? Do you agree on coding? See similar patterns in the data? Concur on categories? Sometimes referred to as “researcher triangulation,” this is actually a key element in qualitative analysis and an important component when striving to ensure trustworthiness in your study [14] . Qualitative research is about seeking out variations and not controlling variables, as in quantitative research. Collaborating with others during analysis lets you tap into multiple perspectives and often makes it easier to see variations in the data, thereby enhancing the quality of your results as well as contributing to the rigor of your study. It is important to note that it is not necessary to force consensus in the findings but one can embrace these variations in interpretation and use that to capture the richness in the data.
Yet there are times when neither openness, pre-understanding, intuition, nor researcher triangulation does the job; for example, when analysing an interview and one is simply confused on how to code certain meaning units. At such times, there are a variety of options. A good starting place is to re-read all the interviews through the lens of this specific issue and actively search for other similar types of meaning units you might have missed. Another way to handle this is to conduct further interviews with specific queries that hopefully shed light on the issue. A third option is to have a follow-up interview with the same person and ask them to explain.
It is important to remember that in a typical project there are several interviews to analyse. Codes found in a single interview serve as a starting point as you then work through the remaining interviews coding all material. Form your categories and themes when all project interviews have been coded.
When submitting an article with your study results, it is a good idea to create a table or figure providing a few key examples of how you progressed from the raw data of meaning units, to condensed meaning units, coding, categorisation, and, if included, themes. Providing such a table or figure supports the rigor of your study [1] and is an element greatly appreciated by reviewers and research consumers.
During the analysis process, it can be advantageous to write down your research aim and questions on a sheet of paper that you keep nearby as you work. Frequently referring to your aim can help you keep focused and on track during analysis. Many find it helpful to colour code their transcriptions and write notes in the margins.
Having access to qualitative analysis software can be greatly helpful in organising and retrieving analysed data. Just remember, a computer does not analyse the data. As Jennings [15] has stated, “… it is ‘peopleware,’ not software, that analyses.” A major drawback is that qualitative analysis software can be prohibitively expensive. One way forward is to use table templates such as we have used in this article. (Three analysis templates, Templates A, B, and C, are provided as supplementary online material ). Additionally, the “find” function in word processing programmes such as Microsoft Word (Redmond, WA USA) facilitates locating key words, e.g., in transcribed interviews, meaning units, and codes.
From our experience with content analysis we have learnt a number of important lessons that may be useful for the novice researcher. They are:
Peer review under responsibility of African Federation for Emergency Medicine.
Appendix A Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2017.08.001 .
BMC Public Health volume 24 , Article number: 2447 ( 2024 ) Cite this article
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The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the growth of a global infodemic. In order to combat the COVID-19 infodemic, it is necessary to understand what kinds of misinformation are spreading. Furthermore, various local factors influence how the infodemic manifests in different countries. Therefore, understanding how and why infodemics differ between countries is a matter of interest for public health. This study aims to elucidate and compare the types of COVID-19 misinformation produced from the infodemic in the US and Japan.
COVID-19 fact-checking articles were obtained from the two largest publishers of fact-checking articles in each language. 1,743 US articles and 148 Japanese articles in their respective languages were gathered, with articles published between 23 January 2020 and 4 November 2022. Articles were analyzed using the free text mining software KH Coder. Exploration of frequently-occurring words and groups of related words was carried out. Based on agglomeration plots and prior research, eight categories of misinformation were created. Lastly, coding rules were created for these eight categories, and a chi-squared test was performed to compare the two datasets.
Overall, the most frequent words in both languages were related to health-related terms, but the Japan dataset had more words referring to foreign countries. Among the eight categories, differences with chi-squared p ≤ 0.01 were found after Holm-Bonferroni p value adjustment for the proportions of misinformation regarding statistics (US 40.0% vs. JP 25.7%, ϕ 0.0792); origin of the virus and resultant discrimination (US 7.0% vs. JP 20.3%, ϕ 0.1311); and COVID-19 disease severity, treatment, or testing (US 32.6% vs. JP 45.9%, ϕ 0.0756).
Local contextual factors were found that likely influenced the infodemic in both countries; representations of these factors include societal polarization in the US and the HPV vaccine scare in Japan. It is possible that Japan’s relative resistance to misinformation affects the kinds of misinformation consumed, directing attention away from conspiracy theories and towards health-related issues. However, more studies need to be done to verify whether misinformation resistance affects misinformation consumption patterns this way.
Peer Review reports
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into the spotlight the growing infodemic : the “excessive amount of unfiltered information concerning a problem such that the solution is made more difficult” [ 1 ]. Between the mainstream media, statements made by politicians, social media platforms, instant messaging services, and changing guidelines released by official institutions, the typical person is constantly inundated with a barrage of information that presents both the challenge of discerning reliable information, as well as the option to take fringe or pseudoscientific theories as the truth. This represents a public health concern, as COVID-19 misinformation or “fake news” may spread anti-vaccine views or promote racial discrimination [ 2 ].
A multi-pronged approach is necessary to mitigate the impact of the infodemic, as no single intervention can achieve the breadth required to match the scale of the worldwide flow of information. Eysenbach proposes four pillars of infodemic management in his 2020 paper: infoveillance and infodemiology (surveillance of information supply and demand, as well as its quality); building eHealth literacy; improving the translation of knowledge between academia and larger outlets such as policymakers, mainstream media, and social media; and the peer-review process and fact-checking [ 3 ].
“Fact-checking” refers to the process of evaluating a statement for its factual accuracy or whether it has been framed in a misleading manner due to omission of context. Fact-checking has its origins in American TV segments devoted to checking the accuracy of statements made by American presidential candidates [ 4 ], though most current fact-checking content is produced by websites such as Snopes or FactCheck.org in the form of articles or videos.
Fact-checking alone cannot be the ultimate counter to misinformation – not only does it have limited effects on correcting perceptions of misinformation due to the strong biases and emotions involved when interacting with such information [ 4 , 5 ], the local politics of truth [ 6 ], i.e. the historical and cultural contexts of the region, inform behavior and beliefs to a significant degree; for instance, close-contact burial practices in parts of west Africa stricken by ebola [ 7 ], or vaccine hesitancy in Japan following the HPV vaccine scare in 2013 [ 8 ]. Interventions targeting an infodemic need to take into account the nature and context of the region to be effective.
One of the few extant studies comparing the COVID-19 infodemics and national contexts across countries was published by Zeng et al. [ 9 ], in which they analyzed fact-checking article contents from the US, China, India, Germany, and France. Some key findings included the fact that non-health misinformation (e.g. regarding politics, or the origin of the virus) is nearly twice as common as health misinformation (e.g. COVID-19 being “just a cold”); Germany is relatively resilient to misinformation compared to the US or India owing to its low societal polarization and high trust in the news media; misinformation regarding the spread of COVID-19 or travel restrictions is common in China, likely due to China being the early epicenter of the pandemic as well as large-scale travel movements that occur around Chinese New Year; and wedge-driving misinformation along religious lines is common in India owing to the longstanding conflict between the nation’s Muslim and Hindu populations.
Although there is already an abundance of cross-cultural research between the US and Japan, a comparative study of infodemics in these countries has yet to be done, and much has changed in the time since the publication of the Zeng paper – noteworthy developments including the progress made in global vaccination campaigns [ 10 ], and the emergence of the highly transmissible delta and omicron variants [ 11 ]. Furthermore, the national contexts of the US and Japan differ to a notable extent, in geographical, sociocultural, and historical terms, making it reasonable to expect differences in the types of misinformation that would gather more traction. Therefore, this research aims to provide an updated understanding of the COVID-19 infodemics in the US and Japan through a quantitative content analysis of the types of misinformation that appear in fact-checking articles.
Data selection and gathering.
In order to find the types of COVID-19 misinformation that gathered significant traction in the US and Japan, COVID-19 fact-checking articles were gathered from the top two largest fact-checking publishers: Politifact and FactCheck.org for the US, and Buzzfeed and InFact for Japan. All articles were written in their respective countries’ languages (English for the US, Japanese for Japan). A summary of the data sources used is shown in Table 1 below. Articles included were published between 23 January 2020 and 4 November 2022.
Article URLs were scraped from the COVID-19 sections of each source in Python, using the Selenium library in Chrome 108.0.5359.124. Following this, a separate program was used to visit the listed URLs and scrape the article contents using the news-please library [ 16 ]. (Source codes can be accessed at https://github.com/seahmatthew/KyotoU-PublicHealth2023 .)
The open-source quantitative text analysis program KH Coder [ 17 ], developed by Koichi Higuchi at Ritsumeikan university, was used to analyze the article contents, with the US and Japan datasets in separate projects. As of January 2023, there are 5,761 published research articles which make use of KH Coder [ 18 ], many of which cover health-related research topics. Its strengths include functions for statistical analysis (e.g., term frequency) of large data files, as well as the KWIC Concordance function [ 19 ] which provides the capability to easily refer to the original data from any given result.
Word Frequency [ 19 ] was used to obtain an overview of the data as a preliminary step. Following this, Hierarchal Cluster Analysis [ 19 ] was used to explore groups of related words, and also to build the lists of terms to force pickup (such as “toilet paper” or “Moderna”) which would not be picked up by default, and irrelevant terms to force ignore (such as “website” or “article”), which introduce noise due to appearing very frequently but not being indicative of any relevant themes. This took a process of trial and error especially when building the force ignore lists, as blocking certain seemingly irrelevant terms would sometimes turn out to hide an otherwise useable article.
After substantive force pickup/ignore lists had been built for each languages, the lists were compared to ensure that relevant keywords were ignored in both languages, although words that appear frequently as syntactic features in each language (such as “pants [on] fire” or “subject”) were not duplicated in the same way.
Next, Hierarchal Cluster Analysis was re-run using the finalized force pickup/ignore lists to gather the terms to form the document coding files. For the U.S. dataset, the minimum Term Frequency (TF) was set to 90, Document Frequency (DF) to 1, and only nouns, proper nouns, and terms from the force pickup list were analyzed to minimize noise. For the Japan dataset, the minimum TF was set to 10, DF to 1, and only nouns, proper nouns, location names, and terms from the force pickup list were analyzed. For both datasets, the Ward method and Jaccard frequency were used, with the number of clusters shown being auto-chosen.
Based on the agglomeration plot turning points from the Hierarchal Cluster analyses, the prior Zeng paper [ 9 ], and familiarity with the data, it was decided to split the data into eight categories. From the categories and keywords found, coding files were built for the US and Japan datasets and applied to obtain the frequencies for each category. Articles could be assigned to multiple categories, and manual sorting was used to classify articles through a first pass after automatic sorting. Articles that failed to be classified in any category after both automatic and manual sorting were assigned to a separate Miscellaneous category.
After the code frequencies for each language had been obtained, chi-squared tests were carried out to test whether there were differences in the frequencies across countries. Holm-Bonferroni adjustment was used to adjust the p values.
The agglomeration plots produced from the Hierarchal Cluster analyses are shown below in Fig. 1 . The turning points show that somewhere in the range of seven categories would be ideal, but considering prior research and familiarity with the data, it was decided to generate eight categories.
Agglomeration plots produced by Hierarchal Cluster Analysis of the US (left) and Japan (right) datasets
The coding files created based on the categories and keywords found are shown in Table 2 . A total of eight categories were created: government policy; resource shortages; statistics; measures to stem the spread of infection; masks and transmission; origin of the virus and resultant discrimination; COVID-19 disease severity, treatment, or testing; and vaccine efficacy, contents, or safety. Each category contains a set of keywords in its respective language that results in close association; for instance, “lockdown”, “quarantine”, and “border” associate highly with articles about measures taken to stem the spread of infection.
A summary of the top 50 words with the highest tf (term frequency) is shown in Table 3 . Both the U.S. and Japan lists are topped by words pertaining to vaccination, masks, cases and testing, likely because these words are likely to appear across a broad range of categories. For instance, words pertaining to vaccination could appear in both articles about supposed deleterious health effects of vaccination, as well as articles about vaccination program plans or vaccine-related conspiracy theories.
A summary of the code frequencies, chi-squared test p values, and relevant excerpts from the data is provided below in Table 4 . Articles that contained none of the eight predetermined codes are grouped in the “Miscellaneous” category. Chi-squared tests were carried out to compare the code frequencies across datasets, and p value correction was done using the Holm-Bonferroni method. Three categories stood out due to their relatively low p values and relatively high effect sizes: statistics, the origin of the virus and resultant discrimination, and COVID-19 severity, treatment, and testing.
Versions of Tables 2 and 3 , and 4 with the original Japanese text are available in Supp_012024.docx.
The effect sizes ϕ for each category are shown below in Table 5 . Only the category on the origin of the virus and resultant discrimination showed an effect size exceeding 0.1, a small effect. The two categories of statistics, and COVID-19 severity, treatment, and testing showed the next-highest effect sizes of > 0.07. Hence, these three categories were chosen for further discussion.
Selective reading of articles with high tf (term frequency) for the chosen categories produced a handful of similarities and differences. Within the statistics category (which was more common in the US dataset, 40.1% vs. 25.7%, ϕ 0.0792), misinformation from both countries tended to downplay the severity of the COVID-19 mortality rate, or otherwise make factually false statistical assertions. US misinformation tended to make more (invalid) comparisons to influenza, and there were false assertions that the US was performing statistically better in terms of mortality rate than other countries, while Japanese misinformation contained more assertions that vaccines increase mortality rate. Many of the US articles in this category were based on quotes from then-President Donald Trump.
Within the category regarding the origin of the virus and resultant discrimination (which was more common in the Japan dataset, 20.3% vs. 7.0%, ϕ 0.1311), misinformation from both countries asserted that COVID-19 was artificially made in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. However, US misinformation tended to focus on federal funding for the institute, and some articles tied the origin of the pandemic to Chinese meat-eating practices. Japanese misinformation focused more on Chinese people within Japan itself, such as warning of incoming tourist swarms or Chinese nationals taking up space in hospitals.
Within the category of COVID-19 severity, treatment, or testing (which was more common in the Japan dataset, 46.0% vs. 32.6%, ϕ 0.0756), both countries had misinformation about treatments for COVID-19, as well as about testing kits. While both countries mentioned ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and marijuana as COVID-19 treatments were exclusive to the US dataset, while green tea and hot water were exclusive to the Japan dataset. More US articles tended to downplay the severity of infection by likening it to the flu. There were pieces of misinformation in the US that stemmed from misinterpretation of test kits, while there were Japanese assertions that COVID-19 test kits are faulty or ineffective.
Overall, non-health misinformation appeared more frequently than health misinformation, echoing findings from other studies analyzing fact-checking articles [ 9 ] or social media posts [ 20 ].
In addition, while the category frequencies for masks and transmission did not appear to differ, the contents of articles in these categories showed differences: articles from the US dataset tended to be regarding misinformation on the effectiveness of masks as a means for preventing transmission, while articles from the Japan dataset tended to be on ancillary topics, such as the country of manufacture of masks, or mask shortages. Mask-wearing as a means for preventing disease transmission while sick is an established aspect of Japanese culture [ 21 ].
As outlined above, there are some differences in the contents of the COVID-19 misinformation circulating in the US and Japan. A few of the numerous contextual factors that may have influenced these differences will be described further below.
Importantly, it should not be assumed that a cause-and-effect relationship is at play, as a myriad of factors influence consumer (and macro-level) information-seeking habits. For instance, on the micro level, there are consumer culture factors that influence patterns of consumption, such as social influences or social class [ 22 ]; on the macro level, society-level factors such as the quality of official communications can affect attitudes towards health measures [ 23 ]. Some evidence also exists to suggest that in certain countries, the demand for certain kinds of misinformation fluctuates based on the epidemic curve [ 9 ]. While a comprehensive list of every potential influencing factor would be beyond the scope of this research, it can be seen that local context can indeed influence information-seeking habits. Understanding the concerns and mindsets of those grappling with the infodemic should be a priority in determining what countermeasures to take (e.g., targeted messaging, rapid response, etc.).
On the topic of the high prevalence of political figures involved in US misinformation, a survey conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in 2020 [ 24 ] found that American information-seeking habits surrounding COVID-19 are strongly tied to political affiliation. Left-leaning respondents were likely to trust the news media and unlikely to trust the government; the opposite was true for right-leaning participants. Trump was himself a major direct source of COVID-19 misinformation [ 25 ], and many of the erroneous claims he made are reflected in the data, especially in the Statistics and Origin categories. The significant sway a person’s political beliefs hold over their information-seeking behavior in the US is likely to be associated with the country’s highly polarized political climate. This finding of the high frequency of misinformation from politicians in the US is echoed in the Zeng paper [ 9 ], and the same paper found that this connection between societal polarization and political misinformation was also clear in India.
In the Japanese dataset, articles pertaining to the origin of COVID-19 from China were much more frequent and pointed in general; as opposed to US articles which mostly addressed conspiracy theories of American funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the animal origins of the virus, articles in this category in the Japan dataset tended to focus directly on Chinese nationals, either as disproportionate occupants of Japanese medical institutions, or as spreaders of COVID-19 inbound from China. Japan’s relative geographical proximity to China and popularity as a Chinese tourist destination, as well as existing anti-Chinese sentiment that has been worsening progressively since the 1980s [ 26 ], may explain to some extent the personal nature of Japanese misinformation in this category.
At first glance, it may seem surprising that both the US and Japan have similar proportions of articles discussing vaccine efficacy, contents, or safety, especially given the heavy role US political figures played in leading supporters to act contrary to evidence-based findings [ 27 ]. In an article published in the Japanese journal Chiryo in 2021, the founders of HPV vaccine awareness group MinPapi describe how vaccine hesitancy in Japan may have been exacerbated by the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine side effect scare in 2013 [ 28 ]; years later, addressing vaccine hesitancy through their new website CoviNavi continues to be a challenge.
Additionally, a 2021 survey conducted in Japan showed that Japanese respondents were uncertain in general about what sources of COVID-19 information they could trust [ 20 ]. 24.7% of respondents believed there was no information source they could trust, and only 26.0% of respondents felt they could trust health experts. This stands in stark contrast to the results from the aforementioned Reuters study, where over 80% of American respondents on both sides of the political spectrum felt they could trust health experts. This difference in response to the infodemic – picking sides, as opposed to being assailed by uncertainty – may actually help to explain why vaccine misinformation is relatively common in both countries; one possible interpretation is that a limited segment of the American audience consumes vaccine misinformation in greater per capita amounts, while a more general segment of the Japanese audience consumes vaccine misinformation in lower per capita amounts.
In a 2020 paper, Humprecht et al. outline a framework for cross-national comparisons of disinformation (henceforth “misinformation”) resilience : the degree to which online misinformation is likely to receive exposure and be spread [ 29 ]. Political factors limiting misinformation resilience include societal polarization, and frequency of populist communication; media-related factors include low trust in news media, weak public news services, and audience fragmentation; economic factors include a large advertisement market size, and high social media usage. Using this framework in a comparison of the US with 16 other mainly European countries, the authors found that the US scored the lowest in misinformation resilience, owing to its fragmented media landscape, large ad market, low trust in news, highly polarized society, and frequent populist communication.
In comparison to the US, Japan scores notably lower in terms of populist communication [ 30 ]; NHK, the public broadcasting network, attains comparable viewership to other networks [ 31 ] as opposed to American public broadcasters with one- to two-thirds the viewership of major American TV networks [ 32 , 33 ]; major TV news networks in Japan attain roughly two times the viewer share of US TV network providers, with Yahoo! News dominating the online news market with over 50% weekly usage [ 34 ]. While a formal comparison has yet to be done in the literature, these factors suggest that Japan may be more resilient to misinformation than the US. It is possible that this affected the sizes of the datasets that could be obtained, leading to the US dataset being more than ten times as large than the Japan dataset.
While it stands to reason that increased misinformation resilience would lead to lower spread and consumption of misinformation, its effect on the types of misinformation consumed is less clear. In the Zeng study [ 9 ], Germany stood out as one of the studied countries with high misinformation resilience; compared to the other countries which tended to contain high proportions of articles on political conspiracy theories, lockdown measures, or transmission methods, misinformation from Germany was centered on COVID-19 treatment and vaccines, similarly to the Japan dataset used in this report. If we consider the nature of rumors and misinformation as an answer-seeking response to a perceived external threat [ 35 ], one possible interpretation of this pattern is that increased misinformation resilience in the midst of the pandemic contributes to lower distraction with non-key issues – the key issue in this context being the health impact of COVID-19 and how it can be avoided or treated. The “Miscellaneous” category is mostly comprised of articles on these non-key issues , including those bordering on absurdity or conspiracy; while this category was not notably differently sized between the US and Japan datasets, the Japan data had a noticeably lower proportion of misinformation along the lines of the “deity of death” US article.
In comparison to prior studies which used fact-checking articles as data, this study uses a larger sample size for the US dataset and offers a Japanese dataset for the first time. In particular, using KH Coder allowed for multiple categories to be assigned to a single article, which reflects the data more accurately than other studies [ 9 ] that are limited to a single category for each article. Additionally, quantitative content analysis using KH Coder allowed for counting the term frequencies in the large datasets, as well as for referring back to the original data when needed using the KWIK Concordance function.
However, as to the limitations of the study, the span of misinformation covered in this report is limited to that selected by the editorial teams in a “gatekeeping” process [ 36 ] for the four online news sources used; in particular, fact-checking in Japan is a relatively new endeavor, with the InFact team and website notably smaller than established fact-checking organizations from the US. This has negative implications for the generalizability of the Japan data, and a larger future dataset would likely give richer results. In addition, since the categorization processes were carried out automatically, there may be a handful of data points that have not been categorized correctly. More studies should be done to further verify the relationship between the misinformation resistance of a country and the types of misinformation that spread within it. Future studies of this nature will have larger and more varied datasets to work with, whether they are about COVID-19 or any other infodemic. Finally, the effect sizes found for the sections discussed here are all of small magnitude, meaning that it should not be inferred that certain segments of misinformation should receive disproportionate amounts of focus in countries that seem vulnerable to that kind of misinformation.
In combination with aggregated data from other countries, data on the types of misinformation which are comparatively common in the country provides policymakers a reference point when allocating resources to tackling misinformation, through means such as rapid-response messaging [ 37 ]. Of course, this data should be weighed against the actual likely impact of said misinformation spreading in the populace; any given piece vaccine misinformation is likely to do more harm overall than a wild claim of a vaccination center bearing a logo of a “deity of death”.
This research also opens up new avenues for further research – for instance, research to verify whether modifying our taking a culturally-relevant approach to tackling misinformation results in better correction outcomes. One possible example would be altering the tone of messaging to be firmer and more succinct in an environment like Japan, where misinformation likely spreads out of uncertainty instead of certainty in misinformation, while a more indirect approach may be more effective in places like the United States where misinformed beliefs are grounded in certainty.
Using quantitative content analysis, this study shows the similarities and differences in the COVID-19 infodemics in US and Japan since the start of the pandemic. Differences were found in the proportion of articles mentioning statistics, the origin of the virus and resultant discrimination, and COVID-19 severity, treatment and testing, though the effect sizes were seen to be small.
Several facets of national context appear to support the trends seen in the data, such as the history of the HPV vaccine in Japan leading to increased distrust of COVID-19 vaccines. In addition, application of a misinformation resilience framework appears to show that in countries with higher resilience, distracting non-key issues such as conspiracy theories attract less attention compared to key issues , which refer to COVID-19 health impacts and other health information in the context of the pandemic. Understanding the types of misinformation in circulation gives policymakers and educators direction in developing strategies to counter this misinformation.
Lastly, it should be reiterated that fact-checking, even when done through appropriate channels in a culturally relevant manner, cannot be relied upon as the sole measure with which to combat an infodemic. Not only does fact-checking have heavily limited effects on correcting misinformed beliefs [ 4 , 5 ], a deluge of fact-checking information may even backfire by contributing to information overload and avoidance in the intended audience [ 38 ], or by simply acting as a dissemination channel for the misinformation that would not have been spread otherwise [ 36 ]. Fact-checking has a place as one of the pillars of infodemic management – there is a need to uphold journalistic integrity, and to provide a reliable source for a more invested, informed reader subset. The other pillars of infoveillance and infodemiology, the gradual process of building eHealth literacy in the populace, and providing clear, timely translations of scientific findings to actionable messages need to be upheld in tandem as a long-term strategy for decreasing the impact of misinformation [ 3 ].
The dataset supporting the conclusions of this article is available in the GitHub repository, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8282744 at https://github.com/seahmatthew/KyotoU-PublicHealth2023 [ 39 ].
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Seah M, Iwakuma M. KyotoU-PublicHealth2023-MatthewSeah. 2023.
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Seah, M., Iwakuma, M. A quantitative content analysis of topical characteristics of the online COVID-19 infodemic in the United States and Japan. BMC Public Health 24 , 2447 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19813-y
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Expanding human pressure has reduced natural habitats globally and motivated strategies to conserve remaining natural habitats. Decisions about conservation on private lands, however, are typically made by local stakeholders who are motivated by the elements of nature they most highly value. Thus, national prioritization for conservation should be complemented by local analysis of species or habitats that most influence local landowner decisions. We demonstrate within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem how quantitative mapping of wildlife species that are highly valued by local residents can be integrated with indices of ecosystem integrity to prioritize private lands for conservation. We found that natural vegetation cover (NVC) comprised 81% of the private lands. Some watersheds have lost 6% of NVC since 2001 and developed lands now cover >40% of their areas. Locations high in ecological value, elk habitat, and grizzly habitat occurred in different biophysical settings. Consequently, only 2% of the NVC supports high levels of all three biodiversity measures and 26% of this area was within conservation easements. The remaining areas of high biodiversity value that are unprotected are priorities for conservation. We suggest that national-scale conservation planning will be most effective on private lands if additional within-ecoregion analyses are done on the elements of biodiversity that are most valued by local people.
Publication Year | 2024 |
---|---|
Title | Integrating ecological value and charismatic species habitats to prioritize habitats for conservation: A case study from Greater Yellowstone |
DOI | |
Authors | A. J. Hansena, A. Easta, Z. Ashford, C. Crittendena, O. Jakabosky, D. Quinby, Shannon K. Brewer, Frank T. van Manen, Mark A. Haroldson, A. Middleton, N. Robinson, D. M. Theobald |
Publication Type | Article |
Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
Series Title | Biological Conservation |
Index ID | |
Record Source | |
USGS Organization | Coop Res Unit Leetown; Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center |
Shannon brewer, phd, research fish biologist, frank t van manen, ph.d., supervisory research wildlife biologist, mark haroldson, supervisory wildlife biologist.
Publication type, date published.
This paper focuses on a process to design and build a web-based system to assist staff in day-to-day management and contemporaneous documentation of their work. Other groups that want to use web technology to support their work could apply the approach presented here, but the design itself pertains to a particular set of issues in a unique context. Each user must apply the approach to identify their objectives and design a site to meet them. The main question that the Energy Efficiency Standards Group addressed was: "How can we facilitate documentation of interim results and final products while conducting a complex, interdependent set of analyses by multiple authors under time pressures for delivering a final product?" The approach to address this question includes categorization of the components of the work, discussions with staff, development of infrastructure support for documentation, implementation of the documentation process and integration with the workflow, and follow- up with staff. The search for a solution raised a number of issues such as the need for a thorough understanding of the work, consensus building by inclusion of key staff, and deliverable scheduling to allow for contemporaneous documentation. Documentation results vary among the product analyses, from extensive internal and external use to much slower adoption. Complaints include the length of the input forms and pressure from clients to deliver results. But with repeated demand for interim output, the need for thorough contemporaneous documentation still remains. Accordingly, as problems arise there is continued commitment among the staff to address them.
Conference Paper, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, v: 31, issue: 2-3, August 18-23, 2002
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Afghanistan
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According to a 2018 World Bank report, roughly 70% of the population of Afghanistan live in rural areas where the majority of livelihoods rely on agriculture and livestock, signaling that large parts of the population of Afghanistan are particularly vulnerable to drought. Drought and its impacts have played a major role in driving needs in Afghanistan. Alongside the triple-dip La Niña event that began at the end of 2020 and continued until 2023, Afghanistan experienced one of the most severe droughts in its history. The impact of the drought, combined with other natural disasters, COVID-19, armed conflict, and the collapse of the representative government in August 2021, has led the country into humanitarian crisis.
The drought has exacerbated food insecurity, affected livelihoods, and limited access to water in Afghanistan. It has also acted as a push factor for displacement within the country. According to the Whole of Afghanistan Assessment (WoAA) conducted by REACH in 2023, about 67% of households reported being affected by drought in the 12 months preceding the data collection. Over the three consecutive dry years from 2021 to 2023, agricultural drought was reported to have severely impacted on food security. According to WoAA data, the percentage of the population experiencing poor food consumption increased from 38% in 2021 to 42% in 2022, and decreased in 2023 to 28%, as drought conditions improved. The percentage of households with acceptable food consumption never exceeded 30% during these years.
In addition, according to the Humanitarian Situation Monitoring (HSM) Key Informant survey conducted in September 2023, approximately 58% of key informants reported drought as the primary cause of displacement in their settlements over the six months preceding the data collection.
The Comparative Drought Analysis (CPDA) conducted in Afghanistan during the first and second quarters of 2024 aims to fill information gaps, at the province level, on the impact of drought on communities' food security, livelihoods, displacement, WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), and health. It also aims to provide insights into the environmental impacts of drought through remote sensing data. Specifically, the study will enhance the development of drought severity monitoring systems, allowing for real-time monitoring of drought severity in Afghanistan.
The methodology and scope of this study were developed by REACH and endorsed by WFP Afghanistan. The study uses free available remote sensing-driven climate data to examine the characteristics of meteorological indicators during dry and wet years. In addition to remote sensing climate data, already available assessment data collected by REACH and other actors in Afghanistan are utilized as well.
Remote sensing data included CHIRPS, MODIS, FEWS NET, Era5, Sentinel-2, and other sources used to calculate drought indicators. Assessment data collected by various organizations over different years were combined and analyzed to monitor changes in related sectors. Data from REACH's WoAA, a nationwide multi-sectoral household survey, were used extensively. Additionally, data from other assessments, including Humanitarian Situation Monitoring (HSM) by REACH, Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping (VAM) by WFP, seasonal calendars from FEWS NET, and acute watery diarrhea cases from WHO, were integrated into the analysis.
Drought indicators in this study were derived from remote sensing data, as access to meteorological ground station data collected by government departments was not accessible. Therefore, the results of the drought indicator analysis have limitations. Additionally, freely available climate datasets have coarse precision, which, while suitable for large-scale geographic scopes, is limited for localized studies.
Nationwide Multi Sectoral Needs Assessment data in Afghanistan is only available since 2021. Accordingly, this limits the ability to track the evolution of needs in communities before that year. Most of the alignment between drought remote sensing data and WoAA assessment data is found between 2021-2022, when the multi sectoral needs data for admin1 level (provinces) is available and at the same time drought condition overshadowed the whole country.
Key Findings
Since 1999, corresponding to the scope of this study, Afghanistan has experienced several drought events with varying severity and geographical impact. Dry weather in Afghanistan is significantly influenced by La Niña events in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Additionally, climate change and global warming contribute to the severity and impact of droughts on communities, particularly by diminishing permanent glaciers and snowpacks. The impacts of drought vary based on the type of drought, topography, and livelihood of the affected areas. Typically, meteorological drought impacts are visible in the upper river basins or mountainous regions of the country, including the Central Highlands and northwestern provinces. Additionally, rainfed and agro-pastoral livelihoods are more sensitive to meteorological drought.
At the beginning of the 21st century, from 2000 to 2002, the country experienced a multi-year drought. Another multi-year drought occurred recently from 2021 to 2023. During these extended drought periods, the country faced hydrological droughts as a result of prolonged meteorological droughts. Hydrological droughts impacted the entire country, but irrigated livelihoods, mostly in the lower and flat parts of the river basins, were more severely affected.
Droughts in Afghanistan have damaged agriculture and livestock, which has further led to increased food prices. In addition, in agro-pastoral communities during drought years, the value of livestock decreased, negatively affecting the purchasing power of these communities. Overall, droughts have disrupted the supply and demand of commodities in the communities.
Drought has emerged as a driver of food insecurity and a deterioration of coping strategies in the country by damaging food sources. The number of people consuming less food increased during drought years. Furthermore, the number of households practicing emergency livelihood coping strategies increased considerably during these years. Although community resilience varies based on the livelihoods practiced, provinces practicing agro-pastoral livelihoods found particularly central highland region, and those provinces with more drought-resistant livelihoods such as forest-based livelihoods in the southeastern region, have shown more stability during drought conditions.
The number of households using unprotected water sources increased generally across the country as droughts extended. Additionally, the number of households traveling longer distances to access water also increased. The incidence of acute watery diarrhea saw a substantial increase during drought years. Water scarcity seems to relate to the type of drought: communities in upper river basins report more challenges in accessing water during meteorological droughts, while lower river basin provinces report more water scarcity during prolonged droughts when hydrological droughts occur.
Afghanistan + 1 more
Acaps thematic report - afghanistan: understanding drought (4 july 2024), ms. lisa doughten, director of financing and partnerships at unocha, on behalf of mr. martin griffiths, usg for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator - briefing to the security council on the situation in afghanistan, 21 june 2024, rebuilding communities in the aftermath of a disaster: a case study on integrated programming.
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Content analysis is a research method used to identify patterns in recorded communication. To conduct content analysis, you systematically collect data from a set of texts, which can be written, oral, or visual: Books, newspapers and magazines. Speeches and interviews. Web content and social media posts. Photographs and films.
A common starting point for qualitative content analysis is often transcribed interview texts. The objective in qualitative content analysis is to systematically transform a large amount of text into a highly organised and concise summary of key results. Analysis of the raw data from verbatim transcribed interviews to form categories or themes ...
Abstract. This paper describes the research process - from planning to presentation, with the emphasis on credibility throughout the whole process - when the methodology of qualitative content analysis is chosen in a qualitative study. The groundwork for the credibility initiates when the planning of the study begins.
The author argues in favor of both case study research as a research strategy and qualitative content analysis as a method of examination of data material and seeks to encourage the integration of ...
Step 1: Select the content you will analyse. Based on your research question, choose the texts that you will analyse. You need to decide: The medium (e.g., newspapers, speeches, or websites) and genre (e.g., opinion pieces, political campaign speeches, or marketing copy)
A case study is one of the most commonly used methodologies of social research. This article attempts to look into the various dimensions of a case study research strategy, the different epistemological strands which determine the particular case study type and approach adopted in the field, discusses the factors which can enhance the effectiveness of a case study research, and the debate ...
Content analysis is a qualitative analysis method that focuses on recorded human artefacts such as manuscripts, voice recordings and journals. Content analysis investigates these written, spoken and visual artefacts without explicitly extracting data from participants - this is called unobtrusive research. In other words, with content ...
"Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words, themes, or concepts within some given qualitative data (i.e. text). Using content analysis, researchers can quantify and analyze the presence, meanings, and relationships of such certain words, themes, or concepts." Source: Columbia Public Health
Readers will also gain practical advice and experience for teaching academic and commercial researchers how to conduct content analysis. Available with Perusall-an eBook that makes it easier to prepare for class Perusall is an award-winning eBook platform featuring social annotation tools that allow students and instructors to collaboratively ...
Abstract. In this chapter, the focus is on ways in which content analysis can be used to investigate and describe interview and textual data. The chapter opens with a contextualization of the method and then proceeds to an examination of the role of content analysis in relation to both quantitative and qualitative modes of social research.
Return to Article Details The Use of Qualitative Content Analysis in Case Study Research The Use of Qualitative Content Analysis in Case Study Research
Case studies are good for describing, comparing, evaluating and understanding different aspects of a research problem. Table of contents. When to do a case study. Step 1: Select a case. Step 2: Build a theoretical framework. Step 3: Collect your data. Step 4: Describe and analyze the case.
The entire content of a case study must be grounded in reality to be a valid subject of investigation in an empirical research study. A case analysis only needs to set the stage for critically examining a situation in practice and, therefore, can be entirely fictional or adapted, all or in-part, from an actual situation.
First, case study research as a research strategy within qualitative social research is briefly presented. Then, a basic introduction to (qualitative) content analysis as an interpretation method for qualitative interviews and other data material is given. Finally the use of qualitative content analysis for developing case studies is examined ...
A single-case study is an in-depth analysis of a single case. This type of case study is useful when the researcher wants to understand a specific phenomenon in detail. ... Analyze the data: The data collected from the case study should be analyzed using various techniques, such as content analysis, thematic analysis, or grounded theory. The ...
Content analysis is a research method used to analyze and interpret the characteristics of various forms of communication, such as text, images, or audio. It involves systematically analyzing the content of these materials, identifying patterns, themes, and other relevant features, and drawing inferences or conclusions based on the findings.
Applying Content Analysis to Case Study Data 1 Applying Content Analysis to Case Study Data Introduction Content analysis can be defined as "an overall approach, a method, and an analytic strategy" that "entails the systematic examination of forms of communication to document patterns objectively".1 Content analysis is generally applied to narrative texts such as
Identify the key problems and issues in the case study. Formulate and include a thesis statement, summarizing the outcome of your analysis in 1-2 sentences. Background. Set the scene: background information, relevant facts, and the most important issues. Demonstrate that you have researched the problems in this case study. Evaluation of the Case
The following is a modified excerpt from Applied Qualitative Research Design: A Total Quality Framework Approach (Roller & Lavrakas, 2015, pp. 284-285). Kuperberg and Stone (2008) present a case study where content analysis was used as the primary research method. It is an example of how many of the Total Quality Framework (TQF) concepts can…
Case Study Analysis is a widely used research method that examines in-depth information about a particular individual, group, organization, or event. It is a comprehensive investigative approach that aims to understand the intricacies and complexities of the subject under study. Through the analysis of real-life scenarios and inquiry into ...
Content analysis is a method used to analyse qualitative data (non-numerical data). In its most common form it is a technique that allows a researcher to take qualitative data and to transform it into quantitative data (numerical data). The technique can be used for data in many different formats, for example interview transcripts, film, and audio recordings.
A hands-on guide to doing content analysis - PMC. Journal List. Afr J Emerg Med. v.7 (3); 2017 Sep. PMC6234169. As a library, NLM provides access to scientific literature. Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement of, or agreement with, the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health.
Writing Center 1/28/13 How to Analyze a Case Study Adapted from Ellet, W. (2007). The case study handbook.Boston, MA: Harvard Business School. A business case simulates a real situation and has three characteristics: 1. a significant issue, 2. enough information to reach a reasonable conclusion, 3. no stated conclusion.
Using quantitative content analysis, this study shows the similarities and differences in the COVID-19 infodemics in US and Japan since the start of the pandemic. ... The dawn of mRNA vaccines: the COVID-19 case. J Controlled Release. 2021;333:511-20. Article CAS Google Scholar Karim SSA, Karim QA. Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant: a new chapter in ...
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The writer is a science commentator For those interested in the legal use of scientific and mathematical ...
Expanding human pressure has reduced natural habitats globally and motivated strategies to conserve remaining natural habitats. Decisions about conservation on private lands, however, are typically made by local stakeholders who are motivated by the elements of nature they most highly value. Thus, national prioritization for conservation should be complemented by local analysis of species or habit
Researchers in EAEI focus on three broad areas: Energy Markets, Policy, and Infrastructure; Energy and Environmental Systems Analysis; and Appliance and Equipment Energy Efficiency Standards. We develop analytical and experimental methods and tools to assess the technical, economic and market potential of energy technologies, as well as the ...
The Comparative Drought Analysis (CPDA) conducted in Afghanistan during the first and second quarters of 2024 aims to fill information gaps, at the province level, on the impact of drought on ...