scholarly journals Spreading emotions in 140 characters: a pilot study in Twitter following the Barcelona terror attacks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Gretenkort ◽  
Francisco Javier Castro-Toledo ◽  
Miriam Esteve ◽  
Fernando Miró-Llinares
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Fear Of Crime ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Online Social Network ◽  
Written Text ◽  
The Public ◽  
Terror Attacks ◽  
Perception Of Security ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Linguistic Material

The online social network Twitter, apart from being one of the main vehicles of communication in the cyberspace, has become an effective diffusor of fear of crime. The latter phenomenon has caught the attention of researchers since the 1960’s, amongst other reasons due to the impact on the citizens’ quality of life and consequently the call for its public management. Yet, the evaluation of fear of crime in the cyberspace, and more precisely on Twitter, is practically inexistent to the date.Based on a sample of tweets pertaining to three different hashtags (#prayforbarcelona, #stopislam, and #barcelona), which were gathered during the attacks on Barcelona in August 2017, our study pretends to investigate how users (n = 450) of Twitter perceive tweets to affect the public appraisal of security. These data were contrasted with a database of affective norms for more than 10,000 words in the Spanish language (Stadthagen-González, Ferré, Pérez-Sánchez, Imbault, & Hinojosa, 2017). We correlated the emotive values of tweets (based on their lexicon) with the estimations of our research participants. The results show significant correlations between various discrete basic emotions (fear, happiness, sadness) ) and our participants’ judgements. We achieved the same for one continuous emotional dimension (valence). This study shows, even though not conclusively, that the emotion transported via the linguistic material has an impact on the estimated likelihood of affecting the public perception of security when elicited in a space of potential crime, specifically in the cyberspace. Our results allow us to (1) continue along this kind of method, contrasting traditional methodology by approaching fear of crime through a combination of Big Data Analysis and linguistic emotion detection in written text. They furthermore allow us to (2) establish the methodological bases to design an automatized detector of fear of crime for Twitter, which we will attempt in a series of follow up studies. Our long-term goal is to program classifying algorithms to identify linguistic material with a high likelihood of affecting the public feeling of security.

Public perception of COVID-19 vaccines from the digital footprints left on Twitter: analyzing positive, neutral and negative sentiments of Twitterati

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aasif Ahmad Mir ◽  
Sevukan Rathinam ◽  
Sumeer Gul
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
English Language ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Reaction ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
The Impact

PurposeTwitter is gaining popularity as a microblogging and social networking service to discuss various social issues. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic and is discussed worldwide. Social media is an instant platform to deliberate various dimensions of COVID-19. The purpose of the study is to explore and analyze the public sentiments related to COVID-19 vaccines across the Twitter messages (positive, neutral, and negative) and the impact tweets make across digital social circles.Design/methodology/approachTo fetch the vaccine-related posts, a manual examination of randomly selected 500 tweets was carried out to identify the popular hashtags relevant to the vaccine conversation. It was found that the hashtags “covid19vaccine” and “coronavirusvaccine” were the two popular hashtags used to discuss the communications related to COVID-19 vaccines. 23,575 global tweets available in public domain were retrieved through “Twitter Application Programming Interface” (API), using “Orange Software”, an open-source machine learning, data visualization and data mining toolkit. The study was confined to the tweets posted in English language only. The default data cleaning and preprocessing techniques available in the “Orange Software” were applied to the dataset, which include “transformation”, “tokenization” and “filtering”. The “Valence Aware Dictionary for sEntiment Reasoning” (VADER) tool was used for classification of tweets to determine the tweet sentiments (positive, neutral and negative) as well as the degree of sentiments (compound score also known as sentiment score). To assess the influence/impact of tweets account wise (verified and unverified) and sentiment wise (positive, neutral, and negative), the retweets and likes, which offer a sort of reward or acknowledgment of tweets, were used.FindingsA gradual decline in the number of tweets over the time is observed. Majority (11,205; 47.52%) of tweets express positive sentiments, followed by neutral (7,948; 33.71%) and negative sentiments (4,422; 18.75%), respectively. The study also signifies a substantial difference between the impact of tweets tweeted by verified and unverified users. The tweets related to verified users have a higher impact both in terms of retweets (65.91%) and likes (84.62%) compared to the tweets tweeted by unverified users. Tweets expressing positive sentiments have the highest impact both in terms of likes (mean = 10.48) and retweets (mean = 3.07) compared to those that express neutral or negative sentiments.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the study is that the sentiments of the people expressed over one single social platform, that is, Twitter have been studied which cannot generalize the global public perceptions. There can be a variation in the results when the datasets from other social media platforms will be studied.Practical implicationsThe study will help to know the people's sentiments and beliefs toward the COVID-19 vaccines. Sentiments that people hold about the COVID-19 vaccines are studied, which will help health policymakers understand the polarity (positive, negative, and neutral) of the tweets and thus see the public reaction and reflect the types of information people are exposed to about vaccines. The study can aid the health sectors to intensify positive messages and eliminate negative messages for an enhanced vaccination uptake. The research can also help design more operative vaccine-advocating communication by customizing messages using the obtained knowledge from the sentiments and opinions about the vaccines.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on an essential aspect of COVID-19 vaccines and how people express themselves (positively, neutrally and negatively) on Twitter.

scholarly journals “Rules of engagement”

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 551-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolai Mouraviev ◽  
Nada K. Kakabadse
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private Investors ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent one can apply experiential learning theory (ELT) to the public-private partnership (PPP) setting in Russia and to draw insights regarding the learning cycle ' s nature. Additionally, the paper assesses whether the PPP case confirms Kolb ' s ELT. Design/methodology/approach – The case study draws upon primary data which the authors collected by interviewing informants including a PPP operator ' s managers, lawyers from Russian law firms and an expert from the National PPP Centre. The authors accomplished data source triangulation in order to ensure a high degree of research validity. Findings – Experiential learning has resulted in a successful and a relatively fast PPP project launch without the concessionary framework. The lessons learned include the need for effective stakeholder engagement; avoiding being stuck in bureaucracy such as collaboration with Federal Ministries and anti-trust agency; avoiding application for government funding as the approval process is tangled and lengthy; attracting strategic private investors; shaping positive public perception of a PPP project; and making continuous efforts in order to effectively mitigate the public acceptance risk. Originality/value – The paper contributes to ELT by incorporating the impact of social environment in the learning model. Additionally, the paper tests the applicability of ELT to learning in the complex organisational setting, i.e., a PPP.

scholarly journals Modelling the fear of crime

2017 ◽  
Vol 473 (2203) ◽  
pp. 20170156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Prieto Curiel ◽  
Steven Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Crime Rate ◽  
Fear Of Crime ◽  
Memory Loss ◽  
Opinion Dynamics ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Local Perception ◽  
Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Perception Of Security ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Exact Relationship

How secure people feel in a particular region is obviously linked to the actual crime suffered in that region but the exact relationship between crime and its fear is quite subtle. Two regions may have the same crime rate but their local perception of security may differ. Equally, two places may have the same perception of security even though one may have a significantly lower crime rate. Furthermore, a negative perception might persist for many years, even when crime rates drop. Here, we develop a model for the dynamics of the perception of security of a region based on the distribution of crime suffered by the population using concepts similar to those used for opinion dynamics. Simulations under a variety of conditions illustrate different scenarios and help us determine the impact of suffering more, or less, crime. The inhomogeneous concentration of crime together with a memory loss process is incorporated into the model for the perception of security, and results explain why people are often more fearful than actually victimized; why a region is perceived as being insecure despite a low crime rate; and why a decrease in the crime rate might not significantly improve the perception of security.

Danger Ahead? The Impact of Fear of Crime on People's Recreational Use of Nonmotorised Shared-Use Routes

10.1068/c24m ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 741-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Ravenscroft ◽  
David Uzzell ◽  
Rachel Leach
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Fear Of Crime ◽  
Systemic Reaction ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Recreational Use

In this paper we discuss the incidence of actual and perceived victimisation in people's recreational use of nonmotorised shared-use routes. Using the findings from eight focus groups, we show that, despite encountering very few conflictual situations when on shared-use routes, the fear of accidents and assaults has a significant impact on some people in some environments. The findings lend support to broader theorisations about people's insecurity when outside the home, where fear is an increasingly systemic reaction to the ways in which understandings of the public domain are shifting.

scholarly journals Analyzing the Impact of Agrophotovoltaic Power Plants on the Amenity Value of Agricultural Landscape: The Case of the Republic of Korea

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11325
Author(s):  
Tae-Hwa Kim ◽  
Ki-Suk Chun ◽  
Seung-Ryong Yang
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Solar Panels ◽  
Amenity Value ◽  
The Public ◽  
Benefit Function ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Detrimental Impact

Recently, in Korea, there have been some disturbing events forcing a trade-off between the expansion of agrophotovoltaic (APV) power plants and the agricultural policy to enhance the public benefit function of agriculture. Under this context, this study attempts to examine the public perception of agricultural landscape and the APV power plants and to analyze the impact of APV power plants on the amenity value of the agricultural landscape. The results of the analysis based on the choice experiment method shows that the marginal willingness-to-pay for a rural tourism accommodation with a ‘agricultural landscape view’ is USD 64.37 higher compared to ‘agrophotovoltaics panel view.’ This implies that the value of the agricultural landscape decreases when solar panels are installed on farmland, signifying the detrimental impact of the APV power plants on the multi-functionality of agriculture. If the installation of APVs is expanded to farmlands nationwide, the amenity value of agricultural landscape is estimated to decrease by USD 1.70 billion or 55.0% of the total estimated amenity value in Korea.

scholarly journals Nie taki wilk straszny… O edukacji ekologicznej w kontekście bajki Wilk Ambaras Tomasza Samojlika i jej wpływie na kształtowanie postaw proekologicznych dzieci i młodzieży względem wilków

2019 ◽  
pp. 321-340
Author(s):  
Anna Naplocha
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Ecological Education ◽  
Educational Goal ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Impact

This article deals with the issue of achieving the goals of ecological education in the context of the fable The Wolf Called Ambaras by Tomasz Samojlik and its influence on shaping pro-ecological attitudes of children and adolescents towards wolves. The fable The Wolf Called Ambaras by Tomasz Samojlik is part of the literature trend promoting pro-ecological attitudes within the framework of ecological education. The main educational goal included in the story of the fable treating the adventures of the young wolf is to provide young readers and their parents the knowledge about the wolves’ life as well as public awareness of the need to protect the wolf by shaping positive attitudes of people towards this predator. Helpful in this assumption is taking up the problem of overthrowing negative stereotypes about wolves, on which the form of answers as well as attemption of demythologizing them are individual scenes of the fable. The plot of the analyzed fable attempts to answer the three main allegations of people towards wolves, which often appear in social, political and ecological discourse: the issue of wolves attacks on people, the impact of wolves hunting on forest game population and the public perception of a wolf as a bad animal, one unnecessary in the ecosystem. In addition, the bibliotherapeutic character of the fable was indicated. Through identificaiton with the character of the fable, readers can overcome their own fears related to their weaknesses and complexes based on the desensitization.

scholarly journals Evaluación ciudadana del desempeño de la Gestión Pública Municipal

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (13) ◽  
Author(s):  
Graciela Delgadillo ◽  
Jorge Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Nuevo Leon ◽  
The Public ◽  
Nuevo León ◽  
The Impact

Key words: Access to public information, citizen’s perception, local government, public performance evaluation, public services effectivenessAbstract. This article presents the result of a study whit the objective to identify and measure the impact of the factors that the citizens uses to evaluate the public management performance in a specific territorial and temporary space in the sphere of action of local government. With a sample of 250 Mexican citizens that normally live in Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon, Mexico conformed by 126 (50,4%) women of between 23 and 73 years with a mean of 43 years old and 124 (49,6%) men of between 18 and 71 years with a mean of 38 years old,the most important findings allowed to identify the factors that mainly influence the evaluation that the citizen does about the local government performance are: the effectiveness of the public services, the honesty of the public workers and the accountability just only linked to the access of public information. The study also offers evidence that confirm variation does not exist between men and women in their way of local government performance evaluation.Palabras clave: Acceso a la información pública, desempeño de la gestión pública, efectividad de servicios públicos, gobierno municipal, percepción ciudadanaResumen. Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio cuyo objetivo fue el de identificar y medir el impacto de los factores que utiliza el ciudadano para evaluar el desempeño de la gestión pública en un espacio territorial y temporal especifico referido a la esfera de acción del gobierno municipal. Con una muestra de 250 ciudadanos mexicanos que habitualmente residen en Guadalupe, Nuevo León, México conformada por 126 (50.4%) mujeres de entre 23 y 73 años con una media de edad de 43 años y 124 (49.6%) hombres de entre 18 y 71 años con una media de edad de 38 años, los hallazgos más importantespermitieron identificar que los factores que mayormente influyen en la evaluación que el ciudadano hace sobre el trabajo que realiza su gobierno municipal son: la efectividad de los servicios públicos, la honestidad de los servidores públicos y la rendición de cuentas referida solo como el acceso a la información pública. El estudio ofrece también evidencia de que noexiste variación en la forma en que los hombres y las mujeres evalúan el desempeño de la gestión pública municipal.

scholarly journals Public's perception regarding the major impacts of radioactive nuclear waste. A research study in Romania

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1012-1025
Author(s):  
Greta-Marilena Vitioanu
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Storage Conditions ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Main Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Safe Management ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Like all other human activities, nuclear activities inherently produce waste. Even if the amount of radioactive nuclear waste is small compared with every other waste generated by human, this is a real danger and may produce devastating effects. Radioactive nuclear waste requires a safe management, a very good classification and limitation of releasing of radioactive effluents into the environment. The anticipated big impacts that any nuclear activity releases involve the environmental impacts, human health and safety. Public's perception represents a big challenge mainly when people are asked about harmful activities or technologies, such as radioactive nuclear waste. The aim of this study is to find out the public's perception of the impacts of radioactive nuclear waste. The main research instrument for this analysis is based on questionnaire. This research represents a new approach for the study of people's perception of radioactive nuclear waste in Romania. Public's perception is one of the key factors with influence on the development of nuclear waste technologies. The perception is crucial and may mean more than reality. The impact of radioactive nuclear waste seen through public perception shows the degree of development of storage conditions, both in the short and long term. The study revealed that the public perception regarding radioactive nuclear waste is divided in two major concerns: the potential impacts on the environment and people's health.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document