The COVID-19 Infodemic: Women and Digital (Health) Literacy

Abstract

The COVID-19 infodemics and gender make it challenging to promote science and health via social media. The objective of this study is to analyze the effects of infodemic exposure on women and men. We argue that an inclusive society is equipped with reliable digital literacy that enables women and men to participate in preventing COVID-19. This quantitative research carried out a survey in June–September 2020, with 440 social media users as respondents in Bali, Indonesia. The approach aims to evaluate attitudes regarding the COVID-19 infodemics. We calculated an error margin of less than +/- 5% at a level of confidence of 95% by combining the online questionnaires and survey analyses. According to the official website of Indonesia's Ministry of Communications and Information, users are grouped based on their age. For sample distribution, trends, and cross-tabulation, a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was also used. We discovered that women are more inclined than men to accept the material in the COVID-19 infomercials as accurate. Men were more likely to practice the advice given in the infodemics than women, despite the fact that women believed the infodemics to be factual. However, more women than men reported being likely to spread the erroneous information, which indicates that women are more likely than men to do so. When given incorrect information about COVID-19, both men and women react almost exactly the same. When putting the COVID-19 advice into practice, male and female respondents responded in the same way. To empower individuals to disrupt infodemic flows, COVID-19 needs to promote the digital literacy of both men and women.