Social media and the spread of COVID-19 infodemic

Adekoya, Clement Ola; Fasae, Joseph Kehinde

doi:10.1108/gkmc-11-2020-0165

Cited by 24 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Studies suggested that individuals, competent in searching online information, and using social media could confidently assess the quality of shared information and combat misinformation on social media (Apuke & Omar, 2020). Several studies also suggested that digital health literacy would be crucial to curtail misinformation sharing on social media (Adekoya & Fasae, 2022; Erinoso et al, 2021; Lee et al, 2020; Pickles et al, 2021). Furthermore, we found that entertainment and status seeking were contextual and behaved differently in different cases and scenarios.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antecedents and Consequences of Misinformation Sharing Behavior among Adults on Social Media during COVID-19

2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Misinformation has been existed for centuries, though emerge as a severe concern in the age of social media, and particularly during COVID-19 global pandemic. As the pandemic approached, a massive influx of mixed quality data appeared on social media, which had adverse effects on society. This study highlights the possible factors contributing to the sharing and spreading misinformation through social media during the crisis. Preferred Reporting Items and Meta-Analysis guidelines were used for systematic review. Anxiety or risk perception associated with COVID-19 was one of the significant motivators for misinformation sharing, followed by entertainment, information seeking, sociability, social tie strength, self-promotion, trust in science, self-efficacy, and altruism. WhatsApp and Facebook were the most used platforms for spreading rumors and misinformation. The results indicated five significant factors associated with COVID-19 misinformation sharing on social media, including socio-demographic characteristics, financial considerations, political affiliation or interest, conspiracy ideation, and religious factors. Misinformation sharing could have profound consequences for individual and society and impeding the efforts of government and health institutions to manage the crisis. This SLR focuses solely on quantitative studies, hence, studies are overlooked from a qualitative standpoint. Furthermore, this study only looked at the predictors of misinformation sharing behavior during COVID-19. It did not look into the factors that could curb the sharing of misinformation on social media platforms as a whole. The study’s findings will help the public, in general, to be cautious about sharing misinformation, and the health care workers, and institutions, in particular, for devising strategies and measures to reduce the flow of misinformation by releasing credible information through concerned official social media accounts. The findings will be valuable for health professionals and government agencies to devise strategies for handling misinformation during public health emergencies.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antecedents and Consequences of Misinformation Sharing Behavior among Adults on Social Media during COVID-19

2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This study provides valuable insights into the effects of official social media accounts on the infodemic during the initial stage of COVID-19. Recent studies have focused their efforts on examining the effects of the infodemic on citizens’ psychological issues and mental health [ 6 , 34 ], and how private social media use has affected the infodemic [ 1 , 12 , 45 ]. For example, some studies have found that commercial media positively affects psychological anxiety, but that official government media has no effect on psychological anxiety [ 90 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In China, in the early stage of the pandemic, false information spread rapidly on social media [ 9 ], causing serious difficulties in managing the disease [ 10 ]. Combating COVID-19 requires the combined efforts of multiple stakeholders who disseminate accurate and authoritative information through different media channels in a timely manner [ 11 , 12 ]. For example, governments and public health agencies should provide up-to-date reliable information on COVID-19 and emotional support to citizens in order to reduce public anxiety and uncertainty [ 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Official Social Media Affected the Infodemic among Adults during the First Wave of COVID-19 in China

Liu

Chen

2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that social media can impact society both positively (e.g., keeping citizens connected and informed) and negatively (e.g., the deliberate spreading of misinformation). This study aims to examine the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between official social media accounts and the infodemic, experienced during the first wave of COVID-19 in China. A theoretical model is proposed to examine how official social media accounts affected the infodemic during this period. In total, 1398 questionnaire responses were collected via WeChat and Tencent QQ, two leading Chinese social media platforms. Data analysis was conducted using Partial Lease Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), moderation effect analysis, and mediation effect analysis. Results indicate that the Information Quality (IQ) of Official social media accounts (β = −0.294, p < 0.001) has a significant negative effect on the infodemic. Mediation effect analysis revealed that both social support (β = −0.333, 95% Boot CI (−0.388, −0.280)) and information cascades (β = −0.189, 95% Boot CI (−0.227, −0.151)) mediate the relationship between IQ and the infodemic. Moderation effect analysis shows that private social media usage (F = 85.637, p < 0.001) positively moderates the relationship between IQ and the infodemic, while health literacy has a small negative moderation effect on the relationship between IQ and the infodemic. Our findings show that, in the context of Chinese media, official social media accounts act as a major source of information for influencing the infodemic through increasing social support and reducing information cascades for citizens.

show abstract

“…Social media, which the vast majority of people use to spread information in the modern era, does more harm than good in terms of providing accurate, reliable information about the pandemic. It is di cult to trust the sources of information received due to the COVID-19 infodemic (Adekoya & Fasae, 2021). Organizing a national information literacy campaign to teach people how to choose dependable sources of information, how to tell fact from ction, and how to help others by providing reliable information are some potential and immediate remedies, according to Al-Zaman (2021); combining media to spread reliable information given that each media has its own bene ts and limitations; and maximizing social media's reach for well-planned digital campaigns are other potential and immediate remedies.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Case Study on the Spread of Fake News by Social Media in the COVID-19 Era in Bangladesh

Hossain

Haque

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fake news has negative impacts on society. It can sometimes cause the death of a person. In Joypurhat, Bangladesh, a garment worker has committed suicide because of fake news. At midnight, a passenger on a bus in Bangladesh's Naogaon district believed Corona had affected his mother. However, after testing, his Corona report came back negative. So, this incident has also happened based on fake news. With the internet, social media have become the most acclaimed tool for freedom of speech, democracy, truth, and as a source of infotainment. In this study, the researchers have attempted to find out whether social media is informing or misinforming the public with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, adopting the qualitative method of study. The findings of this study will aid in determining whether social media is disseminating accurate or incorrect information to the public about the COVID-19 outbreak. The findings show that social media generates approximately 100 COVID-19-related fake news stories over the course of 150 days, from March 1 to July 30, 2020. In this research, the results also show that 64.6% of respondents get COVID-19 related information through social media. In this aspect, Facebook plays an important role. About 53.0% of social media users acclaimed that they get COVID-19 related fake information through Facebook. Facebook spreads 63.0% of fake news, and it is the quickest way to spread any fake news in a short period of time. Most of the fake news is a combination of text and video (49.0%). So, social media is a large platform for getting COVID-19 related information. Fake news and rumors are new words related to COVID-19. This study reveals that 87.3% of respondents are familiar with these words, whereas 12.7% were not familiar with them before the COVID-19 era. About 47.6% of respondents never try to verify any rumors or information related to COVID-19. However, there is less research analyzing the circulation of false and evidence-based information during health emergencies. Thus, the present study aims at shedding new light on the type of fake news that circulated on social media around the COVID-19 outbreak in order to analyze how false information was shared.

show abstract

Social media and the spread of COVID-19 infodemic

Cited by 24 publications

References 10 publications

Antecedents and Consequences of Misinformation Sharing Behavior among Adults on Social Media during COVID-19

Antecedents and Consequences of Misinformation Sharing Behavior among Adults on Social Media during COVID-19

How Official Social Media Affected the Infodemic among Adults during the First Wave of COVID-19 in China

A Case Study on the Spread of Fake News by Social Media in the COVID-19 Era in Bangladesh

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About