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#Retweet this: HIV stigma in the twitterverse

Miriam Y. Vega, PhDLatino Commission on AIDS

& SPSSI UN NGO

Abstract: TUAD0301

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Reaching a World Without AIDS: What About Stigma?

• Numerous biomedical advances the last few years.

• Past UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot noted: “tackling stigma & discrimination is 1 of 5 key imperatives for success”.

• HIV stigma continues to be part of the discourse at the individual, structural and governing body levels.

• Three questions to consider going forward:– Where are we with HIV/AIDS stigma?– How to measure real-time societal or global stigma?– Can we use social media as a tool to mitigate stigma?

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Twitter: Window onto the World?• A microblog of 140 allowable characters with over 215

million active users & over 500 million tweets a day.

• Past research has shown Twitter to be an accurate predictor of public sentiment for a variety of topics ranging from public health to politics to brand-awareness

• Hashtag Activism

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TWITTER STUDY: SENTIMENT ANALYSIS

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Twitter Study: Method• Collected English-language tweets using the public Twitter Streaming

API by tracking keywords “AIDS” and “HIV”.

• A 23-day period that encompassed before, during and after International AIDS Conference 2012 in Washington, DC.

• 282,244 tweets from public stream – # of words, # of retweets (information about the tweet)– # of followers, # of people tweeter follows (the person)

• Tweets were analyzed for polarity (positive, negative, neutral) using SENTIWORDNET Database.

• Classified seven stigma-related emotions– disgust, surprise, anger, shame, pride, happiness, amusement, sadness –

includes emoticons and common twitter acronyms (i.e. LOL).– based on machine-learning algorithms of psychometrically-validated text

samples.  

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Positive Neutral Negative Emotion

I hate you, you hate me. Barney gave you HIV, it started with a kiss but then he wanted more. You got raped by a dinosaur!

0.875 10.75 1.375 Anger

hoes be goin tho . you will suck his Dick but refuse to sex him Lmao you still getting aids #hoe

0.250 10.62 1.125 Amusement

I dont have herpes my dicks just itchin. Its not syphilis, and for being AIDS infested...Idk yet Im too scared to get tested

1.625 8.625 1.750 Fear

THE DIRTY SOUTH GOT AIDS, NIGGAA!

0.000 1.250 0.750 Disgust

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RESULTS

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State of Emotions• Overall polarity of messages was neutral, indicating

information dissemination. – 20% of tweets had an emotion.– 2% more than one emotion.

• The top three expressed emotions were: disgust, amusement (contempt), and anger.– Three emotions associated with stigmatization.

• Very low numbers of tweets expressed internally-directed (shame, pride) emotions.

• Amusement and negative polarity were positively correlated (r =.145, p=000).

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Discrete Emotions by Time

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Tweets by TimeBefore IAC

• I don't know why, but I thought Magic Mike was about a basketball player that caught Aids. Boy was I wrong...

During• “congrats on LIFEBEAT their work for folks with aids should be praised..ur dedication to this

cause is wonderful tnx u”

• Bitch said We had a 4some All them dirty n***rs deserve AIDS man hahahaha

• Antiretroviral treatment not only helps HIV patients live longer, it also keeps them employed, says study http://t.co/q ...

• AIDS used as reason to legalize prostitutes: http://t.co/0Sl39g73u201d at first I thought this was a tweet from @TheOnion #WTF

• Fuck! Raleigh is number 3 in the HIV/AIDS chart......I need a girlfriend.

Post• 90 people get swine flu and everyone wants to wear a mask. Millions of people have AIDS

and HIV yet no one wants to wear a condom...

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PREDICTING EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION AROUND HIV/AIDS

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Hierarchal Relationship of Space on Emotions Tweeted

Emotion Expressed

Amusement/SurpriseDisgust/AngerFear/Shame

Virtual Communication

SpaceWord Count

Influential SpaceFollowers & Friends

Chronological Space

Time around IAC

Word Count Timing Followers Friends

-0.04

-0.02

0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

Predictive Nature of Various "Spaces" on Emotional Expression around HIV/AIDS

Amusement/Surprise

Anger/Disgust

Fear/Shame

Stan

dard

ized

Beta

* P <.001

R2 = .004

R2 = .019

R2 = .003*

*

**

**

*

*

* * * *

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Stigma Score

Influential Space“Klout Score”

(Followers:Friends)

Chronological Space

Time around IAC

Virtual Communication

SpaceWord Count 0.127 *

0.019*

-.025 *

* P <.001

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PREDICTING RE-TWEETING OF HIV/AIDS RELATED TWEETS

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Retweet This!

34% of HIV-related messages were retweeted (indicating interest)

– of which 11% were retweeted more than 50 times

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Hierarchal Relationship of Space on Number of Retweets

Retweet!Virtual

Communication Space

Word Count

Influential SpaceFollowers & Friends

Chronological Space

Time around IAC

EmotionalSpace

Stigma Score

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Retweets

Emotional SpaceStigma Score

Chronological Space

Time around IAC

Virtual Communication

SpaceWord Count

Influential Space“Klout Score”

(Followers:Friends)

0.185*

0.047 *

.144 *

* P <.001

-0.063 *

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Summary: HIV Stigma in Social Media

• Disgust is top expressed emotion.• Anger rises at height of information dissemination. • The expression of anger vs. amusement occurs in

different spheres of influence. • The more KLOUT you have, the less stigmatizing

the tweet and the more likely to be retweeted.• Twitter may heighten the tendency to view oneself

as a social object in need of self presentation. – While in theory twitter allows one a cathartic experience

it is a cathartic experience with a mirror• Information dissemination social media campaigns

need to include context, and contingency plans.

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#ThankYou

• Collaborators– Aaron Dabbah, MPA, America Online– Emily Klukas, MPH, Latino Commission on

AIDS

– Contact me at• mvega@latinoaids.org