Facebook maps the swine flu hysteria

Updated at 11:30 p.m. PDT: This blog misreported the percentage of swine flu interest on Facebook member pages in the states of Texas and Mississippi. The correct percentages are 0.82 percent and 0.29 percent, respectively.

There have been a lot of resources that have surfaced to help track the newly spreading swine flu. On Monday, we covered some of these online resources to help you stay on top of it. Tuesday night, Facebook released some interesting data on the conversations taking place around the swine flu outbreak. The company has posted a photo album on Facebook's official fan page, containing images that detail the growth of the discussion as well as the geographical distribution of people talking about swine flu.

Mississippi doesn't care about the swine flu.

(Credit: Facebook)

As this image shows us, there is a wide range in the percentage of people talking about swine flu in wall posts from state to state. Texas has 0.82 percent of its Facebook users mentioning swine flu, while Mississippi only has 0.29 percent. Hotbeds for the outbreak, such as California, Texas, and New York obviously show the greatest concentration of users discussing swine flu. The numbers in Canada are significantly lower than those in the U.S., obviously showing that the Canucks aren't getting as concerned yet.

All of this data was generated using Facebook's Lexicon service, which tracks how frequently certain terms are mentioned in wall posts. The Facebook data definitely gives us a better understanding of who is talking about the outbreak and can help us to visualize the spread of information on the subject.

The role that social media has played in the spread of information throughout the swine flu outbreak has been significant. Some would argue that social media has helped to fuel the fire, along with the constant coverage on the news. For better or for worse, social media is likely to be one of the primary mediums through which information spreads in a crisis moving forward.

Check out the Facebook data here.

[ketsugi]

I'd like to see a worldwide map for the same. It'd be interesting to track how the hysteria spreads across borders.

[harrisonh1]

Agreed ketsugi. I'd love to see the same. Facebook said that they only did it for the U.S., Canada, and the UK because those are the only countries that they are currently tracking with Lexicon.

[travismcgough]

Correction: the map shows that 0.82% of Facebook users in Texas are referring to the swine flu, not 82%. There is a BIG difference.

[harrisonh1]

Thanks for the catch Travis. That's a horrible error. It's all fixed up now.

[iankennedy54]

Does this map also factor in percentage of people that are using Facebook? The numbers in Mississippi might also be low also because not as many people are using Facebook with a Mississippi address.

[harrisonh1]

Ian,

As I understand it, it shows the percentage of Facebook users from that particular state that have talked about swine flu.

We Canucks aren't concernd because we have universal healthcare. We'll have to sit in the waiting room for three weeks, but we won't have to pay for it, at least.

[Imajenn]

I dont undersrand why it says "Mississippi doesn't care about the swine flu"

It doesnt make sense, especially where its placed, it looks like a mistake

[harrisonh1]

Imajen: It's just a photo caption.

[Imajenn]

Something to consider ...
One reason why it may be low in Mississippi is because they had their Spring Break back in March when this wasnt an issue.

Many of the states with these problems have colleges/schools in them that were in Mexico for Spring Break, or they had a releative there and they brought it back with them.

[Imajenn]

People in Canada may not have to pay for healthcare, but they are highly taxed in other ways

[DigitalBenjamin]

Speaking of Maps. Check out this cool animated map that shows the spread of Swine Flu across the US.

http://www.swine-flu-map-animation.com/

[vitoque1]

Best dashboard (heatmap + timeline + breaking news) about swine map is probably the theairdb one:

http://theairdb.com/swine-flu/heatmap.html

I particularly like the possibility of importing both heatmap and timeline as iGoogle gadget