背景:COVID-19大流行造成了大量人员伤亡,超负荷的医院,降低了许多人的福祉,并在全球范围内产生了巨大的负面经济影响。当英国人民准备恢复时,与2021年11月24日发现新Omicron变体有关的不确定性威胁到了这些计划。因此,有一个重要的需要,可以提供的,部分,通过新闻传播信息,我们在这里检查。
方法:我们使用主题建模,从Omicron出现的大约一个月内发表的近1,500篇英国新闻文章中提取50个主题。我们进行了方差分析,以比较整周之间的主题,从2021年第48周开始。
结果:记录新变体的三个主题(Omicron起源,病毒变异,新变种的新闻)以及提到不包括加强剂的疫苗接种,苏格兰第一部长声明(通信)旅行禁令和戴口罩(限制)以及市场和投资(域名和事件)的影响随着时间的推移而减少(所有ps<.01)。一些主题在第二周或第三周的代表性较低,前后的值较高:政府的紧急情况建议科学咨询小组(通讯),美国的情况,欧洲局势(其他国家和地区)所有PS<.01。涉及症状和病例的几个主题-例如,感染的上升,住院治疗,大流行的节日,轻度症状和护理;限制和措施-例如,财政援助,圣诞节和B计划限制和新年;以及后果和事件的领域-例如,比如政治,NHS和患者,零售和航空公司,以增加代表性为特征,(所有PS<.01)。其他主题的特点是不太规律或不重要的模式。
结论:新闻中感官的变化与与Omicron有关的官方话语的变化紧密匹配,并反映了感染的轨迹及其局部后果。
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused numerous casualties, overloaded hospitals, reduced the wellbeing of many and had a substantial negative economic impact globally. As the population of the United Kingdom was preparing for recovery, the uncertainty relating to the discovery of the new Omicron variant on November 24 2021 threatened those plans. There was thus an important need for sensemaking, which could be provided, partly, through diffusion of information in the press, which we here examine.
We used topic modeling, to extract 50 topics from close to 1,500 UK press articles published during a period of approximately one month from the appearance of Omicron. We performed ANOVAs in order to compare topics between full weeks, starting on week 48 of 2021.
The three topics documenting the new variant (Omicron origins, Virus mutations, News of a new variant) as well as mentions of vaccination excluding booster, Scotlands First minister statement (Communications) travel bans and mask wearing (Restrictions) and the impact of market and investing (Domains and events) decreased through time (all ps < .01). Some topics featured lower representation at week two or three with higher values before and after: Government\'s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies recommendations (Communications), Situation in the US, Situation in Europe (Other countries and regions), all ps < .01. Several topics referring to symptoms and cases-e.g., rises of infections, hospitalisations, the pandemic the holidays, mild symptoms and care; restrictions and measures-e.g., financial help, Christmas and Plan B, restrictions and New Year; and domains of consequences and events-e.g., such as politics, NHS and patients, retail sales and airlines, featured increasing representation, (all ps < .01). Other topics featured less regular or non-significant patterns.
Changes in sensemaking in the press closely matched the changes in the official discourse relating to Omicron and reflects the trajectory of the infection and its local consequences.