Event

Presenter

Hsuan-lei Shao
- Associate Professor, Dept. of East Asian Studies, National Taiwan Normal University.
- Director of the Center of China Studies, NTNU.

Profile

https://web.ntnu.edu.tw/~hlshao/about.htm
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7101-5272

Title of Presentaion

COVID-19 Governance by Social Media in Taiwanese Early Stage of the Epidemic: Prospects for human mobility

Abstract

Social media platforms as a micro-society and its potential to reflect and shape real social changes, which also concerns the authorities who seek to govern and affect such changes. Furthermore, the nature of the World Wide Web is such that social media governance often extends to global events. There is no doubt that such social media trends have a significant impact on human mobility.
This research investigates how the authorities engage in governance of social reactions and shape the public image of “Taiwan Can Help” through social media during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. Using big data analysis techniques such as text mining and time series analysis, this research collects and analyzes group responses from Facebook posts during the early stages of the epidemic outbreak in Taiwan.
The findings reveal five key topics that emerged during this period, namely, (a) domestic epidemic prevention, (b) personal prevention tips, (c) spread of the epidemic, (d) the cases of Japan and Korea, and (e) epidemic politics of China and the United States. Through the analysis of user-generated content, we uncover the dominant keywords and sentiments expressed by users, shedding light on the public's reactions and perceptions of the overall domestic, international, and global situation during the pandemic.
This research goes beyond a descriptive analysis of social media data and offers valuable insights into the governance and decision-making process related to epidemic prevention and development in a post-epidemic society. By examining the public's responses to various topics related to the pandemic, this research has important implications for policymakers and scholars interested in bio-politics and public health governance.