Impact of Social Media in the Fight Against Misinformation on Coronavirus Pandemic
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The main objectives of the study is to investigate the impact of social media in the fight against misinformation on coronavirus pandamic. Specific objectives of the study are:
- To examine the major social media platforms used to curb the spread of fake information of COVID19.
- To analyse the different misinformation on COVID19 spread in the internet.
- To recommend the best way to stop the spread of fake information on covid19.
- To examine the public perception of social media contribution in the fight against fake information on covid19 in Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Impact of Fake News on Public Health
Fake news concerning health on social media represents a risk to global health. The WHO warned in February 2020 that the COVID-19 outbreak had been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’, or an overabundance of information—some of which was accurate and some of which was not—which made it difficult for people to find reliable sources and trustworthy information when they needed it. The consequences of disinformation overload are the spread of uncertainty, fear, anxiety and racism on a scale not seen in previous epidemics, such as SARS, MERS and Zika. Therefore, the WHO is dedicating tremendous efforts aimed at providing evidence-based information and advice to the population through its social media channels, such as Weibo, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest, as well as through its website. The MIT Technology Review highlights that social media are not only being used to spread false news and hate messages but are also being used to share important truthful data and solidarity with all those affected by the virus and hate messages.
We are in what some have called the second information revolution. The first information revolution began with the spread of the written word through the press. Now, in this second information revolution, a digital transformation is shaping how citizens around the world interact with each other. We are facing an unprecedented global expansion in the ways we share, access and create information that is presented in many forms—one of which is social media.
From diverse fields of knowledge linked to health issues, it can be stated that social media can have both a positive and a negative impact on public health. On the one hand, the combination of artificial intelligence and big data can help public health providers identify pandemic diseases in real time, improving the coordination of the response of public health systems through information sharing and improving surveillance and diagnostics. Furthermore, research shows that social media information and social media responses are effective strategies to gain feedback on potential public health policy proposals. This positive impact of social media in health has been demonstrated in a recent study about heat protection policy for Australian schools, which, through the analysis of public comments posted on a national Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) website, identifies the themes to support a national heat protection policy for schools.
There is evidence of the negative effects of using social media to spread misinformation, which produces harmful consequences to global health and well-being, becoming one of the greatest challenges for public health systems today. The most extensively studied topics involving misinformation in health are vaccination, Ebola and the Zika virus, as well as nutrition, cancer, the fluoridation of water and smoking. Disinformation spread by the anti-vaccine movement has led to episodes regarding vaccination provoking easily preventable disasters, such as the measles epidemic in Washington state (January 2019). The spread of false information also explains a decrease in immunization behaviors with respect to measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccinations, explaining the drop in the demand for this vaccine in the UK and the USA between 1999 and 2000.
Furthermore, research related to the negative impacts linked to the authenticity of social media and identities has increased in recent years. This includes the analysis of the problems surrounding social media messages/posts regarding privacy, posts ending with unintended users, concerns on how to use social media platforms, who to follow and how people portray themselves in an inauthentic manner.
CHAPTER THREE
MATERIALS AND METHOD
Research design
The study employed the descriptive cross sectional survey design to collect detailed and factual information on the subject of investigation.
Sources of Data
The data for this study were generated from two main sources; Primary sources and secondary sources. The primary sources include questionnaire, interviews and observation. The secondary sources include journals, bulletins, textbooks and the internet.
Sampling technique and procedure
The multi-stage sampling technique was employed. In the first stage, using purposive sampling technique was used to select Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), University of Lagos (Unilag) and University of Ibadan (UI) based on their familiarity in the southwestern region. In the second stage, all undergraduate students were selected using stratified sampling technique. In the fourth stage, systematic sampling method was employed to administer the structure questionnaire to students across the three universities. In order to ascertain the exact number of students to sample or administer questionnaire, the total population of undergraduates in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), University of Lagos (Unilag) and University of Ibadan (UI) were obtained from the Admission Office in the three universities. Fisher et al. (1983) formula was used to determine the sample size.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Demographic characteristics of respondents
The demographic result indicated that 60.3% of the respondents were males (Table 1). The result obtained lends support to the finding of Idubor (2015) who reported male undergraduate students’ dominance of 71.7% in social media use and addiction. The age distribution indicated that majority (89.0%) of the respondents in the three universities fell within the ages of 17 – 22yrs; implying that majority of the students surveyed in the three universities are adolescents. Similar age range was reported by Idubor (2015) where undergraduates aged 16 – 20yrs were identified to constitute majority of the age cohorts of the study. The religion of respondents identified Christianity and Islam as the widely and commonly practiced religion by 99.4% of the respondents (Table 1). It however showed that a good number of the respondents in the three universities were Christians, followed by Islam with traditional worshippers and atheists being unpopular religion. The study showed that 100 – 300 level making up 80.3% dominated the survey and this category of students are believed to make most use of social media platforms (Table 1). It further showed that in OAU and Unilag, 100 level students were most dominant, while 200 level students were dominant in UI. In all, the level of students shows that a good number of the students are at their early and near- stage of completion of their education. The result obtained is at variance with the study of Swidan et al., (2013) where 300 and 400 level students dominated the survey.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study was carried out on the impact of social media in the fight against misinformation on coronavirus pandemic. The study shows that majority of the students across the selected universities are aware of social media and make use of it. The need for interaction and exchange of ideas are the main reasons for using social media. Facebook is identified as the most favourite social media platform followed by Instagram and WhatsApp, while Kinschat, LinkedIn, Skype and BBM are as least preferred social media sites. Reasons for the preference of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp over other networking sites are informative (educative) nature and ease of use. The study further reveals no significant gender difference in the preference of social media sites because the sites are used by both males and females. The study indicates that majority of the respondents have come across coronavirus pandemic information on social media sites implying that the sites are not simply used for principally chatting, uploading of pictures and updating profiles, but also for the sharing of health information on coronavirus pandemic. The study recognizes prevention methods and general coronavirus pandemic knowledge as the two types of information shared on their sites.
The type of coronavirus pandemic information shared on social media varies significantly among the three universities with a non-negligible number of undergraduates in UI sharing information on adherence to anti-retroviral therapy and messages against stigma other than prevention methods and general coronavirus pandemic knowledge. The study suggests the need for increased campaign on the use of social media for coronavirus pandemic and other health participation. This is so as the result obtained showed that social media did not yield positive result in influencing majority of the respondents to connect and participate in interpersonal and small group associations. The need to connect and participate in such forum should be explained to the students by having a campaign on campus mostly during students’ week. This will create necessary awareness on the need to connect to such sites. Undergraduates who are already connected to the site can also help by encouraging their friends, sibling and relative of the existence of such online HIV discussion forum and the benefits of connecting to the site. Users of social media platforms should not shy to communicate and share coronavirus pandemic information on social media.
REFERENCES
- Abah, R. C., Aderibigbe, T. & Olubunmi, A. (2014) Importance of social media in engaging young people on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention. Journal of AIDS & HIV Research, 6 (8): 152 – 159.
- Adebayo, O. A. (2015) Awareness and usage of social networking sites by students of library and information science: the case of federal polytechnic, Offa, Nigeria. Information and Knowledge Management, 5 (12): 116 – 121.
- Al-Tawfiq, J.A., Momattin, H., Dib, J., Memish, Z.A., (2020). Ribavirin and interferon therapy in patients infected with the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus: an observational study. Int. J. Infect. Dis. 20, 42–46.
- Atkinson, N. L., Saperstein, S. L. and Pleis, J. (2009) Using the internet for health-related activities: findings from a national probability sample. J Med Internet Res. 11(1):e4
- Azhar, E.I., El-Kafrawy, S.A., Farraj, S.A., Hassan, A.M., Al-Saeed, M.S., Hashem, A.M., Madani, T.A., (2020). Evidence for camel-tohuman transmission of MERS coronavirus. N. Engl. J. Med. 370 (26), 2499–2505.
- Barczyk, C. C. and Duncan, D. G. (2013) Facebook in higher education courses: an analysis of students’ attitudes, community of practice, and classroom community. International Business and Management, 6 (1): 1-11.
- Barhoumi, C. (2015) The effectiveness of WhatsApp mobile learning activities guided by activity theory on students’ knowledge management. Contemporary Educational Technology, 6(3), 221 – 238.
- Bermingham, A., Chand, M.A., Brown, C.S., Aarons, E., Tong, C., Langrish, C., Zambon, M., 2019. Severe respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus, in a patient transferred to the United Kingdom from the Middle East, September 2019. Euro Surveill. 17 (40), 20290.
- Bialek, S.R., Allen, D., Alvarado-Ramy, F., et al, (2020). First confirmed Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases in the United States, updated information on the epidemiology of MERS-CoV infection and guidance for the public, clinicians, and public health authorities – May, 2020. Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 63, 431–436.
- Blackstock, O. J., Haughton, L. J., Garner, R. Y., Horvath, K. J., Norwood, C., and Cunningham C. O. (2015) General and health-related Internet use among an urban, community-based sample of HIV-positive women: implications for intervention development. AIDS Care, 27 (4): 536–44.
- Boyd, D.M., and Ellison, N.B. (2007) Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1)
- Briese, T., Mishra, N., Jain, K., Zalmout, I.S., Jabado, O.J., Karesh, W.B., Daszak, P., Mohammed, O.B., Alagaili, A.N., Lipkin, W.I., (2020). Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus quasispecies that include homologues of human isolates revealed through whole-genome analysis and virus cultured from dromedary camels in Saudi Arabia. MBio 5 (3), e01146-14.
