Title: Sentiment analysis of an epidemic: a case of Nipah virus in India

Authors: V. Jayan; Sreejith Alathur; Rajesh R. Pai

Addresses: Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Trivandrum, India ' National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, India ' Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, India

Abstract: Data in social media and other news media can have an impact on the decision-making process of the government and the citizen if properly examined. The mode and pace of dissemination in both media leads to an increase in the delivery of misinformation. This affects the economy of the country and people's mental health. The government must formulate the required measures to counter the proliferation of fake messages and disinformation in the media, which would otherwise lead to an unnecessary burden. Regulation of health communication during the period of epidemic is important, as it has an effect on the mental health of users of the media. The study assesses the emotions of health communication in social media and online news media in the context of the Nipah epidemic in India during 2018.

Keywords: fake news; Nipah; sentiment analysis; social media; psycholinguistics; neurolinguistics; misinformation; depression; anxiety; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2022.121127

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2022 Vol.14 No.2, pp.105 - 114

Received: 25 Jan 2020
Accepted: 30 May 2020
Published online: 28 Feb 2022 *

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