The Partisan Impact on Local Government Dissemination of COVID-19 Information: Assessing US County Government Websites

Hansen, Michael A.; Johansson, Isabelle; Sadowski, Kalie; Blaszcynski, Joseph; Meyer, Sarah

doi:10.1017/s0008423920000918

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…This study highlights the ability to understand how legislators use social media (eg, Twitter); what information they choose to share; and how they frame their content, which was determined through sentiment analysis [ 15 ]. These are key insights that will remain important to the public and health care systems as policy makers continue to shape the national and local responses to the pandemic [ 16 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partisan Differences in Twitter Language Among US Legislators During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

Guntuku¹,

Purtle²,

Meisel³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background As policy makers continue to shape the national and local responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the information they choose to share and how they frame their content provide key insights into the public and health care systems. Objective We examined the language used by the members of the US House and Senate during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic and measured content and sentiment based on the tweets that they shared. Methods We used Quorum (Quorum Analytics Inc) to access more than 300,000 tweets posted by US legislators from January 1 to October 10, 2020. We used differential language analyses to compare the content and sentiment of tweets posted by legislators based on their party affiliation. Results We found that health care–related themes in Democratic legislators’ tweets focused on racial disparities in care (odds ratio [OR] 2.24, 95% CI 2.22-2.27; P<.001), health care and insurance (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.7-1.77; P<.001), COVID-19 testing (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.12-1.19; P<.001), and public health guidelines (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.22-1.29; P<.001). The dominant themes in the Republican legislators’ discourse included vaccine development (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.47-1.55; P<.001) and hospital resources and equipment (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.18-1.25). Nonhealth care–related topics associated with a Democratic affiliation included protections for essential workers (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.52-1.59), the 2020 election and voting (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.27-1.35), unemployment and housing (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.24-1.31), crime and racism (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.18-1.26), public town halls (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.16-1.23), the Trump Administration (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.19-1.26), immigration (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.12-1.19), and the loss of life (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.35-1.42). The themes associated with the Republican affiliation included China (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.85-1.92), small business assistance (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.23-1.3), congressional relief bills (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.2-1.27), press briefings (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.19-1.26), and economic recovery (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.16-1.23). Conclusions Divergent language use on social media corresponds to the partisan divide in the first several months of the course of the COVID-19 public health crisis.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partisan Differences in Twitter Language Among US Legislators During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

Guntuku¹,

Purtle²,

Meisel³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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“…Rocco et al (2021) revealed that subnational COVID-19 data quality, including mortality, is associated with media independence. Hansen et al (2021) pointed out that in the United States, counties were more likely to release information about COVID-19 when there was a stronger opposition (Democrats) before the US presidential election. In our analysis, governments that applied censorship and spread fake news as blame avoidance behaviors may also intentionally underreport the numbers of infected and deaths.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Government-sponsored disinformation and the severity of respiratory infection epidemics including COVID-19: A global analysis, 2001–2020

Lin

Chang

et al. 2022

Social Science & Medicine

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Internet misinformation and government-sponsored disinformation campaigns have been criticized for their presumed/hypothesized role in worsening the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We hypothesize that these government-sponsored disinformation campaigns have been positively associated with infectious disease epidemics, including COVID-19, over the last two decades. By integrating global surveys from the Digital Society Project, Global Burden of Disease, and other data sources across 149 countries for the period 2001–2019, we examined the association between government-sponsored disinformation and the spread of respiratory infections before the COVID-19 outbreak. Then, building on those results, we applied a negative binomial regression model to estimate the associations between government-sponsored disinformation and the confirmed cases and deaths related to COVID-19 during the first 300 days of the outbreak in each country and before vaccination began. After controlling for climatic, public health, socioeconomic, and political factors, we found that government-sponsored disinformation was significantly associated with the incidence and prevalence percentages of respiratory infections in susceptible populations during the period 2001–2019. The results also show that disinformation is significantly associated with the incidence rate ratio (IRR) of cases of COVID-19. The findings imply that governments may contain the damage associated with pandemics by ending their sponsorship of disinformation campaigns.

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“…There is some evidence that law enforcement agencies have the capacity for vast information dissemination but selectively decide which information to disseminate to the mass public (Aiello and Gumbhir, 2016;Kilburn and Krieger, 2014). Other supporting research on county and city websites demonstrates that governmental agencies have a fairly large capacity to disseminate information (Baker andChin, 2016, Bearfield andBowman, 2017;Bernick et al, 2014;Hansen et al, 2021;Harder and Jordan, 2013;Lowatcharin and Menifield, 2015;Yavuz and Welch, 2014). While there is variance in terms of the amount of information on these websites, overall, these websites do a fairly good job of demonstrating a commitment to information sharing.…”

Section: Research On Law Enforcement Online Presencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present, research on governmental agency websites is still ripe for academic investigation. At the local PIJPSM 45,2 governmental level, there are only a handful of studies that explore county or city government websites for the types and amount of information made publicly available (Armstrong, 2011;Baker and Chin, 2016;Bearfield and Bowman, 2017;;Bernick et al, 2014;Hansen et al, 2021;Harder and Jordan, 2013;Lowatcharin and Menifield, 2015). Similarly, information availability and the quality of this information on law enforcement agency websites have garnered academic interest (Aiello and Gumbhir, 2016; Barthe and Lateano, 2006;Dykehouse and Sigler, 2000;;Farmer and Copenhaver, 2021;;Jones and de Guzman, 2012;Kilburn and Krieger, 2014;Madichie and Hinson, 2014;Rosenbaum et al, 2011;Sillince and Brown, 2009;Tully and McKee, 2000;Yavuz and Welch, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing law enforcement websites: a comparative analysis exploring types, quantity and quality of information available

Hansen

Navarro

Malvitz

2022

PIJPSM

Self Cite

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the availability of information on law enforcement websites in the state of Wisconsin.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted a content analysis of all 179 county and municipal local law enforcement agency websites within Wisconsin. The authors then implemented a comparative analysis that explored whether the quantity and quality of information available on law enforcement websites are similar to those of local governments and school districts. The authors then estimated models to test whether there is a relationship between the population size served and gender distribution of law enforcement departments to the availability of information on law enforcement websites.FindingsLaw enforcement websites contain a noticeable lack of information. The finding is even more apparent when comparing law enforcement websites to the websites of local governments and school districts. Finally, the authors show a positive link between information sharing on law enforcement websites and the proportion of the civilian staff at an agency that are women.Originality/valuePast studies that reviewed the make-up of law enforcement websites analyzed large law enforcement departments rather than local law enforcement departments, which notably represent the majority of most law enforcement departments. The authors also explicitly demonstrate that the commitment to information sharing is lagging within law enforcement websites compared to local-level governments. Future scholarship and law enforcement departments may benefit from exploring the employment of female civilians.

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The Partisan Impact on Local Government Dissemination of COVID-19 Information: Assessing US County Government Websites

Cited by 17 publications

References 23 publications

Partisan Differences in Twitter Language Among US Legislators During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

Partisan Differences in Twitter Language Among US Legislators During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

Government-sponsored disinformation and the severity of respiratory infection epidemics including COVID-19: A global analysis, 2001–2020

Assessing law enforcement websites: a comparative analysis exploring types, quantity and quality of information available

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