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Published on: November 10, 2023
Designing a conceptual framework for misinformation on social media: a qualitative study on COVID-19
Peivand Bastani1,2, Seyyed Mostafa Hakimzadeh3, Mohammad Amin Bahrami4,5
1Health Human Resources Research Center, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Objective:
This study was aimed to present a conceptual framework about the misinformation surrounding COVID-19 outbreak in Iran. For this purpose, discourse analysis of two of the most common social virtual networks were conducted via a four step approach as follows: defining the research question and selecting the content of analysis, gathering information and theory on the context, content analysis for establishing the themes and patterns and, presenting the results and drawing conclusions.
Results:
Cultural factors, demand pressure for information during the crisis, the easiness of information dissemination via social networks, marketing incentives and the poor legal supervision of online content are the main reasons for misinformation dissemination. Disease statistics; treatments and prevention are the main subjective categories of releasing misinformation. The consequences of misinformation dissemination include psychosocial, economic, health status, health system and ethical ones. The most recommended strategies for dealing with the issue could be divided into demand and supply-side strategies.
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