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Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate

David A. Broniatowski PhD, Amelia M. Jamison MAA, MPH, SiHua Qi SM, Lulwah AlKulaib SM, Tao Chen PhD, Adrian Benton MS, Sandra C. Quinn PhD, and Mark Dredze PhD

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Correspondence should be sent to David A. Broniatowski, 800 22nd St. NW #2700, Washington, DC 20052 (e-mail: ). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking the “Reprints” link.

CONTRIBUTORS

D. A. Broniatowski designed the study, conducted the statistical analyses, and wrote the first draft of the article. A. M. Jamison conducted the qualitative analysis. A. M. Jamison, S. Qi, and L. Alkulaib conducted the sentiment coding. A. M. Jamison, S. Qi, L. Alkulaib, T. Chen, A. Benton, S. C. Quinn, and M. Dredze critically revised the article. S. Qi, L. Alkulaib, T. Chen, and A. Benton collected and analyzed Twitter data. S. C. Quinn and M. Dredze assisted with study design.

Peer Reviewed

https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567
Accepted: May 22, 2018
Published Online: September 12, 2018

REFERENCES

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David A. Broniatowski, PhD, Amelia M. Jamison, MAA, MPH, SiHua Qi, SM, Lulwah AlKulaib, SM, Tao Chen, PhD, Adrian Benton, MS, Sandra C. Quinn, PhD, and Mark Dredze, PhDDavid A. Broniatowski is with the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science, The George Washington University, Washington, DC. Amelia M. Jamison and Sandra C. Quinn are with the Department of Family Science, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park. Sihua Qi and Lulwah Alkulaib are with the Department of Computer Science, School of Engineering and Applied Science, The George Washington University. Tao Chen, Adrian Benton, and Mark Dredze are with the Department of Computer Science, Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. “Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate”, American Journal of Public Health 108, no. 10 (October 1, 2018): pp. 1378-1384.

https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567

PMID: 30138075