Identifying and Classifying COVID-19 Stigma on Social Media

Nancy Warren · Pia Mingkwan · Caroline Kery · Meagan Meekins · Thomas Bukowski · Laura Nyblade

May 2023 · RTI Press

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About this ebook

Since the introduction of COVID-19 in early 2020, COVID-19 stigma has persisted on social media. Stigma, a social process where individuals or groups are labeled, stereotyped, and separated, can result in misinformation, discrimination, and violence. The body of research on COVID-19 stigma is growing, but addressing stigma on social media remains challenging because of the enormous volume and diversity of rapidly changing content. This three-part methodology offers a standardized approach for generating (1) a relevant and manageable social media sample for stigma identification and research, (2) a categorization process to organize the sample, and (3) a systematic coding method for classifying stigma within the sample. An application of the methodology generated a curated sample of 138,998 posts from Twitter and Reddit, organized according to key stigma domain, key terms, frequency of terms, and hashtag occurrence. A subset of 711 posts were selected for the content analysis and analyzed based on the key stigma domains, distinguishing between intentional and unintentional stigma. This methodology has the potential to facilitate comprehensive social media stigma research through simplified sample generation and stigma identification processes and offers the possibility of adaptation to address other types of social media stigma, beyond COVID-19.

About the author

MPH, is a program manager in the Global Health Division at RTI International. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3226-074X

MSc, was at RTI International in the Global Health Division at the time of the research. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5746-6096

MS, is a research data scientist at the Center for Data Science at RTI International. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1794-3369

MPH, is a learning and knowledge management facilitator for the International Development Group at RTI International. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0207-9667

MPA, MA, is a digital and social media health research analyst for the Center for Health Analytics, Media, and Policy’s Health Media Impact and Digital Analytics program at RTI International. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5720-8564

MA, PhD, is a Fellow in Health Policy and expert in stigma and discrimination in the Global Public Health Impact Center at RTI International. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8067-419

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