The opioid epidemic in the United States has been declared a public health emergency by President Trump in October 2017. Nearly 64.000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2016 alone, and opioid overdoses accounted for more than 42.000 of these deaths, more than any previous year on record. In this evident context of deep economic and social crisis, social media platforms, such as Twitter, perform a primary role in understanding what is the perception about opioids and how people are aware about this epidemic. The joint study and observation of social media and data about the opioids published by government sources, allows to understand if a social consciousness of the problem exists and how it is reflected on social media contents. Furthermore, it is possible to study the changes of the social response to this health problem also at the moment in which either some public political statements or high visibility events occur. In this study, we investigate and analyze data collected on Twitter about the opioid epidemic along a two year period (2017-2018) in the United States in order to: (i) discover the volumes and the trends of the conversation; (ii) understand if there is a social consciousness of the problem, through a comparison with public data available on governement websites, such as the number of overdose deaths; (iii) comprehend if the social data are influenced by a high visibility opioid-related event involving some celebrity; (iiii) understand how much politicians deal with this topic on social media and what is the feedback they receive.
La cosiddetta epidemia di oppiacei, che affligge gli Stati Uniti, è stata dichiarata dal presidente Trump emergenza nazionale per la salute pubblica nell’ottobre 2017. Infatti soltanto nel 2016, 64.000 americani sono morti a causa di un’overdose di droga, di cui 42.000 morirono per una overdose da oppiacei, il numero più alto che si era registrato fino ad allora. In questo evidente contesto di profonda crisi economica e sociale, le piattaforme di social media, come Twitter, svolgono un ruolo primario nel comprendere qual è la percezione degli oppiacei e come le persone sono consapevoli di questa epidemia. Lo studio e l’osservazione congiunti dei social media e dei dati sugli oppiacei pubblicati da fonti governative, consente di capire se esiste una coscienza sociale del problema e come si riflette sui contenuti dei social network. Inoltre, è possibile studiare i cambiamenti della risposta sociale a questo problema di salute anche nel momento in cui si verificano dichiarazioni pubbliche politiche o eventi ad alta visibilità. In questa tesi, indaghiamo e analizziamo i dati raccolti su Twitter sull’epidemia di oppiacei durante un periodo di due anni (2017-2018) negli Stati Uniti al fine di: (i) scoprire i volumi e le tendenze della conversazione; (ii) capire se esiste una coscienza sociale del problema, attraverso un confronto con i dati pubblici disponibili sui siti Web governativi, come il numero di decessi per overdose; (iii) comprendere se i dati sociali sono influenzati da un evento di alta visibilità correlato agli oppiacei che coinvolge alcune celebrità; (iiii) capire quanto i politici affrontano questo argomento sui social media e qual è il feedback che ricevono.
Investigating the opioid epidemic on social media
Brezza, Alessia
2019/2020
Abstract
The opioid epidemic in the United States has been declared a public health emergency by President Trump in October 2017. Nearly 64.000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2016 alone, and opioid overdoses accounted for more than 42.000 of these deaths, more than any previous year on record. In this evident context of deep economic and social crisis, social media platforms, such as Twitter, perform a primary role in understanding what is the perception about opioids and how people are aware about this epidemic. The joint study and observation of social media and data about the opioids published by government sources, allows to understand if a social consciousness of the problem exists and how it is reflected on social media contents. Furthermore, it is possible to study the changes of the social response to this health problem also at the moment in which either some public political statements or high visibility events occur. In this study, we investigate and analyze data collected on Twitter about the opioid epidemic along a two year period (2017-2018) in the United States in order to: (i) discover the volumes and the trends of the conversation; (ii) understand if there is a social consciousness of the problem, through a comparison with public data available on governement websites, such as the number of overdose deaths; (iii) comprehend if the social data are influenced by a high visibility opioid-related event involving some celebrity; (iiii) understand how much politicians deal with this topic on social media and what is the feedback they receive.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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Thesis_Final_Alessia_Brezza_Opioids.pdf
Open Access dal 05/07/2021
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/164377