Local chatter or international buzz? Language differences on posts about Zika research on Twitter and Facebook.

ABSTRACT:

Background

When the Zika virus outbreak became a global health emergency in early 2016, the scientific community responded with an increased output of Zika-related research. This upsurge in research naturally made its way into academic journals along with editorials, news, and reports. However, it is not yet known how or whether these scholarly communications were distributed to the populations most affected by Zika.

Methodology/principal findings

To understand how scientific outputs about Zika reached global and local audiences, we collected Tweets and Facebook posts that linked to Zika-related research in the first six months of 2016. Using a language detection algorithm, we found that up to 90% of Twitter and 76% of Facebook posts are in English. However, when none of the

SUBMITTER: Barata G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5755770 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature