Health Communication Through News Media During the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: Digital Topic Modeling Approach

Qian Liu   ^{1, 2} , PhD, MSc ;   Zequan Zheng   ^{3, 4 *} , MBBS ;   Jiabin Zheng   ^{3, 4 *} , MBBS ;   Qiuyi Chen   ¹ , MA ;   Guan Liu   ⁵ , PhD ;   Sihan Chen   ³ , BA ;   Bojia Chu   ³ , BA ;   Hongyu Zhu   ³ , BA ;   Babatunde Akinwunmi   ^{6, 7} , MD, MPH, MMSc ;   Jian Huang   ⁸ , PhD ;   Casper J P Zhang   ⁹ , PhD ;   Wai-Kit Ming   ³ , MD, PhD, MPH, MMSc, EMBA

¹ School of Journalism and Communication, National Media Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

² Department of Communication, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York State, NY, United States

³ Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

⁴ International School, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

⁵ Computer Centre, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

⁶ Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

⁷ Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Unit, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

⁸ Multidisciplinary, Collaborative Research Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, St Mary’s Campus, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

⁹ School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong)

*these authors contributed equally