The online structure and development of posting behaviour in Dutch anti-vaccination groups on Telegram.

Autor: Schlette, Anniek, van Prooijen, Jan-Willem, Blokland, Arjan, Thijs, Fabienne
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Zdroj: New Media & Society; Aug2024, Vol. 26 Issue 8, p4689-4710, 22p
Abstrakt: Online communities play an important role in spreading public discontent and could contribute to polarization. This study focuses on anti-vaccination views in the Netherlands, which have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the structure and development of five Dutch anti-vaccination Telegram groups and studied their interactivity and posting behaviour. Using group-based trajectory modelling, we examined the development of users' posting behaviour in these groups. We find four posting trajectories across all five groups. A small group of users contributes the majority of posts. Overall, posting frequency declines over time and our results do not show evidence for a group of users whose posting frequency increases. This is taken to indicate that only a small group of users spread their anti-vaccination views through Telegram groups. While social media can reach a broad audience, most users are not necessarily engaged to also actively contribute to the online anti-vaccination community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Databáze: Complementary Index