Analysis of Online Media Consumption during Initial Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the COVID-19 cases continue to rise, individuals are seeking out online information regarding the pandemic at unprecedented rates. In volumes never seen before, and from various sources currently unknown to providers. This study may act as a guide for healthcare, public health, and government personnel to characterize the most popular destinations of COVID-19 related web searches, in order to dispel possible rumors and promote the consumption of credible information. We sought to characterize patterns in search engine utilization and website traffic related to the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to other large-scale disease outbreaks of the past two decades. Using the Google Trends and Similar Web analytics platforms, we found the relative popularity of the search term “Corona Virus” to more than double the peak search popularities for “Zika”, “Ebola”, and “Swine Flu”. As of March 2020, 6.7% of the total web traffic for “Corona Virus” was directed to the WHO and CDC, compared with 9.9% of web traffic directed to cable news networks, and 12.3% directed to daily newspapers. Increased scrutiny of these sites by health officials may be warranted to rapidly identify and counter the spread of false narratives regarding testing, treatment, or quarantine restrictions. Check for updates compares traffic to ‘competing’ websites based on identical keyword searches [5,6]. GT data were extracted for the keywords “Zika,” “Ebola,” “Swine Flu,” and “Corona Virus” from January 1, 2004 March 31, 2020 (Figure 1). Data were reported as “Google Search Volume Index” (GSVI) values, representing the relative popularity of a term compared to all searches over a set timeframe. Next, the SW platform was used to analyze web traffic trends for “Corona Virus” search engine queries between January 2020 March 2020 (Figure 2). All descriptive analyses were performed using R Studio Desktop (Version 1.2.5033). Results From January 2004 March 2020, the peak GSVI value for Citation: Jella TK, Nicole DBS, Jella TK, et al. (2020) Analysis of Online Media Consumption during Initial Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Ann Public Health Reports 4(1):105-107 Jella et al. Ann Public Health Reports 2020, 4(1):105-107 Open Access | Page 106 | Figure 1: Comparison of Google Searches for Large-Scale Disease Outbreaks. *Search data for each term are normalized against all searches and reported as google search volume index (GSVI) values ranging from 0 to 100. A value of 50 indicates half the ‘popularity’ of a value of 100, and vice versa. Figure 2: Web Traffic Trends of the Top 10 Destinations following “Corona Virus” Search Queries. Similar web data January 2020 March 2020: Source (pro.similarweb.com) Citation: Jella TK, Nicole DBS, Jella TK, et al. (2020) Analysis of Online Media Consumption during Initial Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Ann Public Health Reports 4(1):105-107 Jella et al. Ann Public Health Reports 2020, 4(1):105-107 Open Access | Page 107 | from any sensationalism which may arise is substantial. Non-conflicted public institutions such as the CDC and WHO which exist, in large part, to disseminate measured and consistent health information to guide individual and collective action should be trusted as a first line of defense against the COVID-19 “infodemic”.


Introduction
Since December 2019, COVID-19 has caused a worldwide public health crisis resulting in over 1.3 million confirmed cases and almost 75,000 deaths [1]. As the affected population grows, there is a persistent need to identify and counteract unreliable sources of information. Recently, the WHO Director-General has prioritized correcting myths and rumors spread on various social media platforms [2]. It is crucial to understand where the public is seeking updates regarding the pandemic in order to dispel misinformation and promote the use of credible resources. This study analyzes patterns of online media consumption related to COVID-19 and compares contemporary web traffic to that of other recent major disease outbreaks.

Methods
We conducted an "infodemiological" [3] assessment of public search engine use and web traffic statistics. All data were collected using 'Google Trends'(GT) and the associated 'Similar Web'(SW) analytics tool, since globally, approximately 80-90% of internet users rely on Google [4]. Public search data is aggregated and indexed across millions of web pages to power both software platforms [5,6]. The former compares the usage of different keywords over time, while the latter

Abstract
As the COVID-19 cases continue to rise, individuals are seeking out online information regarding the pandemic at unprecedented rates. In volumes never seen before, and from various sources currently unknown to providers. This study may act as a guide for healthcare, public health, and government personnel to characterize the most popular destinations of COVID-19 related web searches, in order to dispel possible rumors and promote the consumption of credible information. We sought to characterize patterns in search engine utilization and website traffic related to the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to other large-scale disease outbreaks of the past two decades. Using the Google Trends and Similar Web analytics platforms, we found the relative popularity of the search term "Corona Virus" to more than double the peak search popularities for "Zika", "Ebola", and "Swine Flu". As of March 2020, 6.7% of the total web traffic for "Corona Virus" was directed to the WHO and CDC, compared with 9.9% of web traffic directed to cable news networks, and 12.3% directed to daily newspapers. Increased scrutiny of these sites by health officials may be warranted to rapidly identify and counter the spread of false narratives regarding testing, treatment, or quarantine restrictions. GT data were extracted for the keywords "Zika," "Ebola," "Swine Flu," and "Corona Virus" from January 1, 2004 -March 31, 2020 ( Figure 1). Data were reported as "Google Search Volume Index" (GSVI) values, representing the relative popularity of a term compared to all searches over a set timeframe. Next, the SW platform was used to analyze web traffic trends for "Corona Virus" search engine queries between January 2020 -March 2020 ( Figure 2). All descriptive analyses were performed using R Studio Desktop (Version 1.2.5033).

Results
From January 2004 -March 2020, the peak GSVI value for  from any sensationalism which may arise is substantial. Non-conflicted public institutions such as the CDC and WHO which exist, in large part, to disseminate measured and consistent health information to guide individual and collective action should be trusted as a first line of defense against the COVID-19 "infodemic".

Funding
None.

Conflicts of Interest
None.