Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: May 19, 2020
Date Accepted: Jun 21, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jun 22, 2020
Digital Divides in Posting COVID-19 Content on Social Media among U.S. Adults: Opportunities to Understand the Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Minorities
ABSTRACT
Background:
Public health surveillance experts are leveraging user generated content on social media to track the spread and effects of COVID-19 across populations, but disparities in who is posting content, particularly with respect to users’ race and ethnicity within the U.S., can generate biases in their products. Prior studies characterizing social media users raise important questions about whether the profile of users during the pandemic is representative of those most at risk for the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19. Further, important demographic intersections with race and ethnicity – gender and age – are rarely investigated in work characterizing social media users, yet they reflect additional axes of inequality shaping differential exposure to COVID-19 and its effects.
Objective:
To characterize U.S. based adults who are posting COVID-19 content on social media, with a focus on their race and ethnicity and how this intersects with gender and age.
Methods:
A secondary analysis of a web survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in March 19-24, 2020 using a national, probability sample (N = 10,510). Respondents were recruited from an online panel, where panelists without an Internet-enabled device were given one at no cost. The binary dependent variable was responses to an item asking whether respondents “used social media to share or post information about the coronavirus.” We used survey-weighted logistic regressions to estimate the odds of responding in the affirmative based on the race and ethnicity of respondents (white, black, Latino, other race/ethnicity), adjusted for covariates measuring sociodemographic background and COVID-19 experiences. We examined how gender (female, male) and age (18-30, 31-50, 51-64, 65+) intersected with race and ethnicity by estimating interactions.
Results:
Respondents identifying with any of the three non-white categories had significantly higher odds of reporting they posted COVID-19 content on social media (black: P = .03, Latino: P <.001, other: P = .03). Women had higher odds of posting than men regardless of race and ethnicity (P < .001). Among men, non-whites were significantly more likely to post (black: P = .009, Latino: P <.001, other: P = .003). Older adults (65 or older) had significantly lower odds (P = .01) of posting compared to younger adults (18-29), particularly among those identifying as other race (P = .001). Latinos are significantly more likely across all age groups to report posting (18-30: P = .01, 31-49: P = .04, 50-64: P < .001, 65+: P = .001).
Conclusions:
Racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to contribute to COVID-19 content in social media data, particularly among groups traditionally less likely to use social media (older adults, men). The next step is to ensure data collection procedures capture this diversity by encompassing a breadth of search terms and social media platforms.
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