Journal article
Mapping the anti-vaccination movement on Facebook
Information, Communication and Society, Vol.22(9), pp.1310-1327
2019
Abstract
Over the past decade, anti-vaccination rhetoric has become part of the mainstream discourse regarding the public health practice of childhood vaccination. These utilise social media to foster online spaces that strengthen and popularise anti-vaccination discourses. In this paper, we examine the characteristics of and the discourses present within six popular anti-vaccination Facebook pages. We examine these large-scale datasets using a range of methods, including social network analysis, gender prediction using historical census data, and generative statistical models for topic analysis (Latent Dirichletallocation). We find that present-day discourses centre around moral outrage and structural oppression by institutional government and the media, suggesting a strong logic of 'conspiracy-style' beliefs and thinking. Furthermore, anti-vaccination pages on Facebook reflect a highly 'feminised' movement the vast majority of participants are women. Although anti-vaccination networks on Facebook are large and global in scope, the comment activity sub-networks appear to be 'small world'. This suggests that social media may have a role in spreading anti-vaccination ideas and making the movement durable on a global scale.
Details
- Title
- Mapping the anti-vaccination movement on Facebook
- Authors
- Naomi Smith (Corresponding Author) - Federation UniversityTim Graham (Author) - Australian National University
- Publication details
- Information, Communication and Society, Vol.22(9), pp.1310-1327
- Publisher
- Routledge
- DOI
- 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1418406
- ISSN
- 1468-4462
- Organisation Unit
- School of Law and Society
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99702398902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Domestic collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Communication
- Sociology
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