Unveiling Topics and Emotions in Arabic Tweets Surrounding the COVID-19 Pandemic: Topic Modeling and Sentiment Analysis Approach
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The worldwide effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been profound, and the Arab world has not been exempt from its wide-ranging consequences. Within this context, social media platforms such as Twitter have become essential for sharing information and expressing public opinions during this global crisis. Careful investigation of Arabic tweets related to COVID-19 can provide invaluable insights into the common topics and underlying sentiments that shape discussions about the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to understand the concerns and feelings of Twitter users in Arabic-speaking countries about the COVID-19 pandemic. This was accomplished through analyzing the themes and sentiments that were expressed in Arabic tweets about the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: In this study, 1 million Arabic tweets about COVID-19 posted between March 1 and March 31, 2020, were analyzed. Machine learning techniques, such as topic modeling and sentiment analysis, were applied to understand the main topics and emotions that were expressed in these tweets. RESULTS: The analysis of Arabic tweets revealed several prominent topics related to COVID-19. The analysis identified and grouped 16 different conversation topics that were organized into eight themes: (1) preventive measures and safety, (2) medical and health care aspects, (3) government and social measures, (4) impact and numbers, (5) vaccine development and research, (6) COVID-19 and religious practices, (7) global impact of COVID-19 on sports and countries, and (8) COVID-19 and national efforts. Across all the topics identified, the prevailing sentiments regarding the spread of COVID-19 were primarily centered around anger, followed by disgust, joy, and anticipation. Notably, when conversations revolved around new COVID-19 cases and fatalities, public tweets revealed a notably heightened sense of anger in comparison to other subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The study offers valuable insights into the topics and emotions expressed in Arabic tweets related to COVID-19. It demonstrates the significance of social media platforms, particularly Twitter, in capturing the Arabic-speaking community's concerns and sentiments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the prevailing discourse, enabling stakeholders to tailor effective communication strategies and address specific public concerns. This study underscores the importance of monitoring social media conversations in Arabic to support public health efforts and crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.004 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".