Our Positive Social Influence Lab Presented at the MSU Science Festival

The Positive Social Influence Lab was represented by primary speaker Mimi Lui this April when she shared the lab’s process of coding tweets for the social media vaccine hesitancy project at the MSU Science Festival. The lab has been working to create a code book for labelling the thousands of tweets which are being captured through Twitter for use in building an algorithm that can identify tweets that are pro-,anti-, or neutral about vaccines. It was a great opportunity for the lab to share with the public what we are doing to fight online misinformation about vaccines.

Type: Presentation Description: Vaccine hesitancy has been wildly discussed on social media during the pandemic. We’re currently monitoring vaccine-related posts on Twitter in real-time, and Facebook groups and Instagram accounts weekly. We’re developing a machine-learning algorithm to automatically categorize the post into pro-, neutral, or anti-vaccine. Such a massive dataset can help us understand how social media influence people’s likelihood to get vaccinated, what techniques anti-vaccination groups are using to influence others, how people respond to misinformation, and how can we encourage more people to get vaccinated. Presented by:

• Nan Zhang, Research Assistant, Advertising and Public Relations, MSU

• Young Argyris, Assistant Professor, Media and Information, MSU

• Mimi Liu, Research Assistant, Media and Information, MSU

Ages: All Ages Scientific Disciplines:

• Social Science

• Health and Human Services

Time and Location

• Date/Time: 4/4/2022 7:30 - 8:00 PM Location: https://msu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tgay50EcQCq4w441msPuEw Preregistration required: Due to limited space, attendees must register in advance. Sign up for free at our partner site.