New NCOVID-19 paper thread:
“How the world's collective attention is being paid to a pandemic:
COVID-19 related 1-gram time series for 24 languages on Twitter”
Main site:
compstorylab.org/covid19ngrams/
“How the world's collective attention is being paid to a pandemic:
COVID-19 related 1-gram time series for 24 languages on Twitter”
Main site:
compstorylab.org/covid19ngrams/
We make two main contributions:
1. We curate and share usage time series of 1,000 1-grams that have mattered in March of 2020 (words, emojis, hashtags, etc.) for 24 languages.
We hope other researchers can use these time series to connect with other data streams.
1. We curate and share usage time series of 1,000 1-grams that have mattered in March of 2020 (words, emojis, hashtags, etc.) for 24 languages.
We hope other researchers can use these time series to connect with other data streams.
2. We show that after a peak in January 2020 in response to the news from Wuhan of a novel contagious disase, the world’s collective attention dropped through much of February before resurging.
To find meaningful 1-grams for now, we compared Zipf distributions for March 2020 relative to March 2019.
We used our new allotaxonometric equipment on our also new language-re-identified Twitter database of 1-grams.
We used our new allotaxonometric equipment on our also new language-re-identified Twitter database of 1-grams.
Threads on these papers—
Twitter languages:
Allotaxonometry:
Twitter languages:
Allotaxonometry:
We looked at 24 of the most common languages on Twitter.
(We had to leave out Japanese, Thai, and Chinese because we are not able to parse them well with our current tools.)
(We had to leave out Japanese, Thai, and Chinese because we are not able to parse them well with our current tools.)
Some languages correspond strongly with countries, others are more spread out (e.g., English, Spanish, Arabic).
Here’s an example of how Italian differed, using our allotaxonometric tools, and focusing only on simple words.
The right side is filled with pandemic-related terms that were hardly or not at all being used a year ago.
The right side is filled with pandemic-related terms that were hardly or not at all being used a year ago.
We made lists like this one for each of the first 21 days of March, comparing to the year before, and then found which 1-grams really stood out overall.
Here are the top 20 1-grams for our 24 languages, in groups of 6, with languages ordered by overall rank on Twitter.
Languages 1–6:
Languages 1–6:
Not all 1-grams are about the pandemic—the world always has many stories running together.
Languages 7–12:
Languages 7–12:
But the pandemic dominates the narrative space in a way we’ve never seen before.
Languages 13–18:
Languages 13–18:
The last 6 of 24:
We share all of these time series (2019/09/01–) for the top 1000 1-grams on Gitlab here:
gitlab.com/compstorylab/c…
gitlab.com/compstorylab/c…
We explored the daily rank time series for the word ‘virus’, translated as needed.
1. A late January peak appears across most of the time series, leading to a decline in collective attention.
2. The world slowly relaxed.
3. And the virus spread.
The top 12 languages:
1. A late January peak appears across most of the time series, leading to a decline in collective attention.
2. The world slowly relaxed.
3. And the virus spread.
The top 12 languages:
The next 12 languages:
Of the top 24, Catalan stood out as not having a response to the January news of a novel contagious disease in China.
Immediately next: We’re working on providing a similar data set for 2-grams.
Yes, we will have time series for “toilet paper” in English.
Until then, we believe/hope there’s much more that can be one with the time series we’ve put together.
Yes, we will have time series for “toilet paper” in English.
Until then, we believe/hope there’s much more that can be one with the time series we’ve put together.
Per the paper, some topics to track:
Hand washing, testing, serology, vaccines, masks and protection equipment, social/physical distancing, community support versus loneliness/isolation, closures of schools and universities, economic problems, job loss, and food concerns.
Hand washing, testing, serology, vaccines, masks and protection equipment, social/physical distancing, community support versus loneliness/isolation, closures of schools and universities, economic problems, job loss, and food concerns.
Ending the thread here.
We will attempt to update the data daily, and the paper as need be.
Be safe, help others, and think systems not selves.
We will attempt to update the data daily, and the paper as need be.
Be safe, help others, and think systems not selves.
