How is pandemic perceived in China?A case study of COVID-19

To help the government better understand and manage public sentiments,and help the public establish the values of rational participation in online discussions related to COVID-19,it is necessary to explore the themes and emotions of different subjects discussing the pandemic on social media platforms.The study takes a comprehensive view by combining social media and scholarly outputs data.In particular,WeChat articles are investigated to reveal the public concern and public sentiment towards COVID-19,and WeChat mentions to scholarly papers are identified to show the interaction between the public and researchers.Text analysis is conducted to construct co-occurrence networks and reveal the distribution of themes.VOSviewer is applied to network visualization.Statistical and comparative analysis showed that discussion about COVID-19 keeps hot on WeChat.WeChat offical accounts from the information industry dominate,suggesting a free and flexible discussing environment.Topics on WeChat overlap with that of scholarly papers but have a much broader scope.WeChat mentions to scholarly papers has bridged the public with the research and has a high coverage of 61.7%.Public sentiment in WeChat is positive,demonstrating good confidence in defeating the pandemic.These findings are helpful in understanding the social attitude towards and comprehensive perception of COVID-19 in China.