Managing News Overload (MNO): The COVID-19 Infodemic

Abstract

A crucial area in which information overload is experienced is news consumption. Ever increasing sources and formats are becoming available through a combination of traditional and new (digital) media, including social media. In such an information and media rich environment, understanding how people access and manage news during a global health epidemic like COVID-19 becomes even more important. The designation of the current situation as an infodemic has raised concerns about the quality, accuracy and impact of information. Instances of misinformation are commonplace due, in part, to the speed and pervasive nature of social media and messaging applications in particular. This paper reports on data collected using media diaries from 15 university students in the United Arab Emirates documenting their news consumption in April 2020. Faced with a potentially infinite amount of information and news, participants demonstrate how they are managing news overload (MNO) using a number of complementary strategies. Results show that while consumption patterns vary, all diaries indicate that users’ ability to navigate the news landscape in a way that fulfils their needs is influenced by news sources; platform reliability and verification; sharing activity; and engagement with news.

Perceptions and effects of COVID-19 related information in Denmark and Sweden – a web-based survey about COVID-19 and social media

“…This, together with trust or lack thereof in the authorities’ strategies, may hence also affect how people choose or not to socialise with consideration taken to authoritative socialisation advice. As implied by the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’, citizens can be faced with information overload (Ahmed 2020 ; Gallotti et al 2020 ; Kulkarni et al 2020 ), encompassing accurate and timely information (O’Brien et al 2020 ), but also what those behind the dominant medico-political discourse would classify as dis- and misinformation (Depoux et al 2020 ; Hollowood and Mostrous 2020 ). The rapid spread of information through social media certainly contributes to this phenomenon, and may cause confusion and panic in some people (de Vries et al, 2018 ; Depoux et al, 2020 ).…”

The causes, impacts and countermeasures of COVID-19 “Infodemic”: A systematic review using narrative synthesis

“…Education and training on health/eHealth literacy were required for the public communities or individuals to increase their ability to differentiate reliable information from the rumors. ( Durodolu and Ibenne, 2020 ; Wormer, 2020 ; Mokhtari and Mirzaei, 2020 ; Mondiale de la Santé, 2020 ; Gottlieb and Dyer, 2020 ; Chou et al., 2021 ; Bastani and Bahrami, 2020 ; Vanderpool et al., 2020 ; Okereke et al., 2020 ; Schiavo, 2020 ; Morgan-Daniel et al., 2020 ; Alvarez-Risco et al., 2020 ; Chong et al., 2020 ; Cichocka, 2020 ; Scerri and Grech, 2020 ; Patel et al., 2020 ; Yu and Mani, 2020 ; Ahmed, 2020 ; Hui et al., 2020 ; Clark-Ginsberg et al., 2020 ; Vraga et al., 2020 ; Sharma et al., 2020 ; Xie et al., 2020 ; Dakhesh et al., 2020 ; Eysenbach, 2002 ; Graham, 2021 ; Morley et al., 2020 ; Vervoort et al., 2020 ; Sperry and Scheibe, 2002 ; Khan et al., 2020 ; Ratzan et al., 2020 ; Hartley and Vu, 2020 ) Empirical studies showed that an empowering intervention was able to significantly reduce the conspiracy beliefs among the public, hence reducing the spreading of rumors ( van Stekelenburg et al., 2021 ; Richardson et al., 2020 ).…”

Factors Affecting Public Adoption of COVID-19 Prevention and Treatment Information During an Infodemic: Cross-sectional Survey Study

“…However, social media is both a source of the infodemic and a public health tool [ 77 ]. Therefore, it is necessary to include social media platforms in public information dissemination; rethinking the role of public communication will also be necessary to assume corresponding responsibility during the pandemic.…”