JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Measuring public response during COVID-19 is an important way of ensuring the suitability and effectiveness of epidemic response efforts. An analysis of social media provides an approximation to public sentiment during an emergency like the current pandemic. The measures introduced across the globe to help curtail the spread of the coronavirus have led to the development of a situation labelled as a ‘perfect storm’, triggering a wave of domestic violence. As people use social media to communicate their experiences, analyzing public discourse and sentiment on social platforms offers a way to understand concerns and issues related to domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective:

This study was based on an analysis of public discourse and sentiment related to domestic violence during the stay-at-home periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia in 2020. It aimed to understand the more personal self-reported experiences, emotions and reactions towards domestic violence, that were not always classified/collected by official public bodies during the pandemic.

Methods:

We searched Twitter posts in Australia using key terms related to domestic violence and COVID-19 during 2020 using ‘Meltwater’ software to determine sentiments related to domestic violence during this period.

Results:

The study showed that the use of sentiment and discourse analysis to assess Twitter data is useful in measuring the public expression of feelings and sharing of resources in relation to the otherwise personal experience of domestic violence. Heightened awareness of this could help agencies tailor and target messaging to maximize impact. Negative or neutral sentiment centered on the sharp rise in domestic violence during different lockdown periods of the 2020 pandemic with neutral to positive sentiment centered around praise of efforts to raise awareness of domestic as well as the positive actions of domestic violence charities and support groups in their campaigns. There were calls for positive and proactive handling (rather than a mishandling of) of the pandemic and results indicated a high level of public discontent related to the rising rates of the violence and the lack of services during the pandemic.

Conclusions:

This study provided a timely understanding of public sentiment related to domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdown periods in Australia using Twitter analysis. Twitter represents an important avenue for dissemination of information that can be widely dispersed and easily accessed by a range of different communities who are often difficult to reach. Improved understanding of these issues is important for future policy direction.