An analysis of attitude of general public toward COVID-19 crises – sentimental analysis and a topic modeling study

Abstract

Purpose It has been eight months into the global pandemic health crises COVID-19, yet the severity of the crises is just getting worse in many parts of the world. At this stage, it is essential to understand and observe the general attitude of the public toward COVID crises and the major concerns the public has voiced out and how it varies across months. Understanding the impact that the COVID-19 crises have created also helps policymakers and health-care organizations access the primary steps that need to be taken for the welfare of the community. The purpose of this study is to understand the general public's response towards COVID-19 crises and the major issues that concerns them. Design/methodology/approach For the analysis, data were collected from Twitter. Tweets regarding COVID-19 crises were collected from February 1, 2020, to June 27, 2020. In all, 433,195 tweets were used for this study. Natural language processing (NLP), which is a part of Machine learning, was used for this study. NLP was used to track the changes in the general public's sentiment toward COVID-19 crises and LDA was used to understand the issues that shape the general public's sentiments the crises time. Using Python library Wordcloud, the authors further derived how the primary concerns regarding COVID crises various from February to June of the year 2020. Findings This study was conducted in two parts. Study 1 results showed that the attitude of the general public toward COVID crises was reasonably neutral at the beginning of the crises (Month of February). As the crises become severe, the sentiments toward COVID increasingly become negative yet a considerable percentage of neutral sentiments existed even at the peak time of the crises. Study 2 finds out that issues including the severity of the disease, Precautionary measures need to be taken, and Personal issues like unemployment and traveling during the pandemic time were identified as the public's primary concerns. Originality/value The research adds value to the literature on understanding the major issues and concerns, the public voices out about the current ongoing pandemic. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study with an extended period of timeframe (Five months). In this research, the authors have collected data till June for analysis that makes the results and findings more relevant to the current time.