The COVID-19 vaccine on the short-video platform Kwai: A study of the emotions expressed in Brazilian content

In this article, we analysed the emotions expressed in response to COVID-19 vaccines on Kwai, a Chinese social-media platform launched in Brazil in 2019. Our corpus comprised 355 videos published between 2020 and 2022 and collected through a Python script. The emotions were identified and classified based on the emotion descriptors of the Human–Machine Interaction Network on Emotion for Emotion Annotation and Representation Language; an analysis of the levels of emotional valence and arousal was based on the core affect model. Considering the diversity of video content, we classified the posts according to their approach in order to identify those that expressed emotion, based on their predominant characteristic (personal, informative, infotainment, humorous or advertising). As a result, we observed that just over half of the emotions expressed in relation to the total set of data were positive. This positive attitude was emphasized when the vaccines were taken as the main topic mobilizing emotions. Expressions of contentment and trust stood out, especially among posts with a personal approach and advertising content. Among the negative emotions, disapproval and doubt stood out, mobilized by topics in relation to the vaccines and other contextual elements, especially in videos with a humorous, informative or infotainment approach.