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. 2022 Sep 26;25(2):493–512. doi: 10.1007/s10796-022-10329-7

Table 2.

Descriptive statistics (mean [std]) and t-test results of the extracted topics

ID Topic Fake news Real news t-value (F-R) p-value
(a) English
E1 getting vaccinated 0.043 [0.140] 0.005 [0.022] 31.852  < .001***
E2 pandemic 0.006 [0.031] 0.022 [0.104] –16.120  < .001***
E3 Vaccinequity 0.015 [0.023] 0.039 [0.126] –21.220  < .001***
E4 face mask 0.010 [0.050] 0.018 [0.092] –8.808  < .001***
E5 depopulation 0.016 [0.083] 0.003 [0.003] 19.082  < .001***
E6 deaths 0.015 [0.043] 0.036 [0.121] –18.508  < .001***
E7 unvaccinated people 0.038 [0.106] 0.011 [0.019] 29.878  < .001***
E8 cases 0.016 [0.027] 0.048 [0.147] –23.524  < .001***
E9 virus origin 0.025 [0.106] 0.007 [0.022] 18.820  < .001***
E10 pandemic in Italy 0.028 [0.104] 0.009 [0.019] 20.111  < .001***
E11 U.S. President 0.021 [0.087] 0.010 [0.024] 14.279  < .001***
E12 UK lockdown 0.004 [0.033] 0.012 [0.087] –9.244  < .001***
E13 India fighting COVID-19 0.009 [0.010] 0.024 [0.107] –15.314  < .001***
E14 COVID-19 vaccine 0.017 [0.050] 0.025 [0.092] –7.975  < .001***
E15 flu vaccine 0.010 [0.045] 0.016 [0.075] –7.674  < .001***
E16 protective measures 0.010 [0.028] 0.024 [0.098] –15.621  < .001***
E17 cases in Nigeria 0.005 [0.004] 0.018 [0.102] –14.349  < .001***
E18 Covidview report 0.011 [0.042] 0.020 [0.081] –10.565  < .001***
E19 back to school 0.009 [0.054] 0.005 [0.024] 7.948  < .001***
E20 chicken contamination 0.008 [0.054] 0.004 [0.018] 8.313  < .001***
E21 India lockdown 0.017 [0.081] 0.006 [0.015] 15.216  < .001***
E22 Bill Gates 0.009 [0.063] 0.001 [0.003] 14.158  < .001***
E23 case updates 0.006 [0.029] 0.014 [0.093] –9.531  < .001***
E24 testing 0.005 [0.031] 0.007 [0.048] –3.999  < .001***
E25 travel 0.010 [0.045] 0.009 [0.056] 1.534 0.125
(b) Chinese
C1 Deaths 0.033 [0.065] 0.058 [0.171] –6.615  < .001***
C2 Shenshan hospital 0.070 [0.175] 0.068 [0.160] 0.350 0.727
C3 prevention & control 0.017 [0.054] 0.025 [0.095] –3.299 0.001**
C4 confirmed cases 0.025 [0.030] 0.057 [0.159] –11.105  < .001***
C5 viral infection 0.039 [0.114] 0.020 [0.102] 4.117  < .001***
C6 protective measures 0.048 [0.106] 0.030 [0.123] 4.067  < .001***
C7 pandemic in U.S 0.049 [0.161] 0.019 [0.068] 4.930  < .001***
C8 fighting COVID-19 0.017 [0.035] 0.028 [0.105] –4.850  < .001***
C9 COVID-19 vaccine 0.026 [0.067] 0.022 [0.102] 1.325 0.186
C10 pandemic in Japan 0.011 [0.008] 0.030 [0.126] –8.869  < .001***
C11 British Prime Minister 0.016 [0.016] 0.029 [0.123] –6.373  < .001***
C12 preventative measures 0.055 [0.147] 0.007 [0.038] 8.658  < .001***
C13 wastewater surveillance 0.019 [0.097] 0.030 [0.135] –2.538 0.011
C14 PCR testing 0.006 [0.006] 0.014 [0.072] –6.463  < .001***
C15 pandemic in Spain 0.002 [0.002] 0.020 [0.118] –8.768  < .001***

***: p < .001; **: p < .01

Topics in bold denote overlapping topics between news in the two languages.