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COVID-19 Infodemic: A study on the Fragile Five countries.

Merve Boyacı Yıldırım¹

¹Department of Public Relations and Publicity Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Istanbul Gelisim University Istanbul Turkey.

Journal of Public Affairs

|January 31, 2023

Summary

COVID-19 misinformation, primarily rumors about illness and treatment, dominated the Fragile Five countries. Most false news (96.3%) spread via Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

Keywords:

COVID‐19 fact‐check infodemic misinformation social media

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Area of Science:

Public Health
Media Studies
Information Science

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic saw a surge in misinformation across various media platforms.
Understanding the nature and dissemination of this misinformation is crucial for public health interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

To analyze the characteristics of COVID-19 misinformation circulating in the Fragile Five countries.
To identify the primary themes and media platforms involved in spreading health-related rumors and conspiracy theories.

Main Methods:

Data collected via web scraping from the International Fact-checking Network's CoronaVirusFacts database (Jan 24 - Nov 14, 2020).
1,734 misinformation items analyzed using MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020.
Categorization based on content themes, media platform, and veracity (false, misleading).

Main Results:

Rumors constituted 96.3% of misinformation, significantly outweighing conspiracy theories (3.7%).
Key rumor themes included illness (26.9%) and diagnosis-treatment (25%); conspiracy theories focused on the disease's origin (68.8%).
Facebook was the dominant platform (53.06%), followed by Twitter (15.32%) and WhatsApp (13.34%).
The majority of misinformation was classified as false (85.12%), with misleading news at 10.09%.

Conclusions:

COVID-19 misinformation in the Fragile Five countries was predominantly rumor-based, focusing on illness and treatment.
Social media platforms, especially Facebook, played a significant role in the rapid dissemination of false and misleading health information.
Findings highlight the need for targeted fact-checking and media literacy initiatives to combat health misinformation.