scholarly journals Youth-led efforts against infodemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Uakkas ◽  
O El Omrani
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Global Epidemic ◽  
Internet Radio ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Source Type ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Fact Checking

Abstract Problem The IFMSA, voicing the opinion of 1.3 million medical students from 129 countries, acknowledges the importance of health literacy in driving social change. Today, there is a global epidemic of misinformation, spreading rapidly through social media platforms and other outlets, posing a critical threat for public health due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Also, it threatens the possibility of slowing down the progression of the virus. The fight against such misinformation requires continuous provision of the most reliable and recent information. Description A global study was conducted by IFMSA, in collaboration with the WHO, composed of a survey to get data about all the organizations, institutions, NGOs, and other entities that focus on fact-checking and correcting misinformation about COVID-19. The survey was filled by medical students from end of April to end of May who reported name, type, scope of work, languages, primary funding source, type and source of information shared by the organization. Results We discovered 182 initiatives from 62 countries worldwide that verified information in 48 languages. Social media, internet, radio, SMS, printed media and hearsay were identified as the main sources of misinformation. Video podcasts with experts, regular social media updates and newsletters, were described as best practices, in addition to debunking myths on a regular basis and verifying statements by public figures. Also quality of fact-checking differed between initiatives. Lessons Data showed that myths and false information are spreading through different means from public figures to daily social media outlets. Fighting misinformation should use innovative and accessible approaches. There is urgent need for national initiatives and political engagement for myth-busting. IFMSA and WHO are following up by designing a platform to share fact-checking initiatives and recommendations openly, and by creating an AI system with Amazon to analyze articles in social media. Key messages Fact-checking and myth-busting are essential to limit the COVID-19 related infodemic spreading through different media and social media platforms, famous figures and others. Initiatives worldwide are doing fact-checking. Yet, the quality and quantity of available fact-checking differ between countries and there is a need for more universal good quality fact-checking.

scholarly journals Importance-Aware Learning for Neural Headline Editing

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (05) ◽  
pp. 9282-9289
Author(s):  
Qingyang Wu ◽  
Lei Li ◽  
Hao Zhou ◽  
Ying Zeng ◽  
Zhou Yu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Language Models ◽  
Neural Network Models ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Editing Process ◽  
Different Levels

Many social media news writers are not professionally trained. Therefore, social media platforms have to hire professional editors to adjust amateur headlines to attract more readers. We propose to automate this headline editing process through neural network models to provide more immediate writing support for these social media news writers. To train such a neural headline editing model, we collected a dataset which contains articles with original headlines and professionally edited headlines. However, it is expensive to collect a large number of professionally edited headlines. To solve this low-resource problem, we design an encoder-decoder model which leverages large scale pre-trained language models. We further improve the pre-trained model's quality by introducing a headline generation task as an intermediate task before the headline editing task. Also, we propose Self Importance-Aware (SIA) loss to address the different levels of editing in the dataset by down-weighting the importance of easily classified tokens and sentences. With the help of Pre-training, Adaptation, and SIA, the model learns to generate headlines in the professional editor's style. Experimental results show that our method significantly improves the quality of headline editing comparing against previous methods.

scholarly journals The usage pattern and willingness of undergraduate medical students for including social media platforms as a learning tool in medical education- an online survey

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Momin Kashif ◽  
Mirza Nisar Baig
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Medical Education ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Active Participation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Usage Pattern ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Learning Tool ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Background: The rapid growth and availability of smartphones and social media platforms (SMP) have changed the medical students' approach to learn and manage the information about their academic, personal and professional lives. Methods: An online survey was done in undergraduate medical students of PIMS, Karimnagar to collect information about usage pattern and perception of SMP, and willingness to participate for using SMP as a learning tool in medical education. Results: Total 433 (Females – 275) out of 600 students participated in the survey from the first year (125), secondyear (151) and third-year (157) MBBS students. Everyone is using some type of SMP. They find SMP nearly equal to lecture materials and subject notes as a useful learning tool and there was significantly increasing trend of perception of SMP being a useful learning tool from the first-year (79%), second-year (83%) to third-year (92%), (p=0.01). Almost 93% want to see SMP used at institute level in medical education. Female students (52.4%) are significantly more willing for active participation than male students (43%), p=0.04. First-year students (56%) are more ready for active participation followed by third (48.4%) and second (43.7%) year students, p=0.08. Conclusion: Most students are willing to include SMP in medical education as a learning tool and ready to participate in different activities if they get the required training. As all students have smartphones and efficiently utilizing different services on their devices, SMP can become an effective learning tool in medical education.

scholarly journals “Best of both worlds”: A students-as-partners near-peer moderation program improves student engagement in a course Facebook group

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-181
Author(s):  
Mohammad Jay ◽  
Michelle Lim ◽  
Khalid Hossain ◽  
Tara White ◽  
Syed Reza Naqvi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
The Third ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Senior Students ◽  
Traditional Learning Environments

Social media platforms like Facebook are designed to facilitate online communication and networking, primarily around content posted by users. As such, these technologies are being considered as potential enhancements to traditional learning environments. However, various barriers to effective use may arise. Our research investigated the effectiveness of a students-as-partners near-peer moderation project, arising from collaboration between instructors and senior students, as a vehicle for enhancing student interaction in a Facebook group associated with a large introductory science course. The quantity and quality of sample posts and comments from Facebook groups from three successive academic years were evaluated using a rubric that considered characteristics such as civility, content accuracy, critical thinking and psychological support. Two of these groups were moderated by near-peer students while the third group was not moderated.  We found improved course discussion associated with moderated groups in addition to benefits to moderators and the faculty partner. This suggests that near-peer moderation programs working in collaboration with faculty may increase student engagement in social media platforms.

scholarly journals Electoral Disinformation: Looking Through the Lens of Tsek.ph Fact Checks

Plaridel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-295
Author(s):  
Yvonne Chua ◽  
Jake Soriano
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Midterm Elections ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fact Checking

Elections are fertile ground for disinformation. The 2019 midterm elections, like the 2016 presidential election, buttress this observation. This ugly side of electoral contests is documented by Tsek.ph, a pioneering collaborative fact-checking initiative launched by three universities and eleven newsrooms specifically for the midterms. Its repository of fact checks provides valuable insights into the nature of electoral disinformation before, during and after the elections. Clearly, electoral disinformation emanates from candidates and supporters alike, on conventional (e.g., speeches and sorties) and digital (e.g., social media) platforms. Its wide range of victims includes the media no less.

Analyzing Social Media Research: A Data Quality and Research Reproducibility Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 227797522110118
Author(s):  
Amit K. Srivastava ◽  
Rajhans Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Data Quality ◽  
Quality Of Data ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
National Crisis ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Quality Issues ◽  
The One ◽  
Media Data

Social media platforms have become very popular these days among individuals and organizations. On the one hand, organizations use social media as a potential tool to create awareness of their products among consumers, and on the other hand, social media data is useful to predict the national crisis, election polls, stock prediction, etc. However, nowadays, a debate is going on about the quality of data generated on social media platforms, whether it is relevant for prediction and generalization. The article discusses the relevance and quality of data obtained from social media in the context of research and development. Social media data quality issues may impact the generalizability and reproducibility of the results of the study. The paper explores possible reasons for quality issues in the data generated over social media platforms along with the suggestive measures to minimize them using the proposed social media data quality framework.

‘Death by Twitter’: Understanding false death announcements on social media and the performance of platform cultural capital

First Monday ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjorn Nansen ◽  
Dominic O'Donnell ◽  
Michael Arnold ◽  
Tamara Kohn ◽  
Martin Gibbs
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Study Analysis ◽  
Online Identity ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Digital News ◽  
Cultural Responses

In this paper, we analyse false death announcements of public figures on social media and public responses to them. The analysis draws from a range of public sources to collect and categorise the volume of false death announcements on Twitter and undertakes a case study analysis of representative examples. We classify false death announcements according to five overarching types: accidental; misreported; misunderstood; hacked; and hoaxed. We identify patterns of user responses, which cycle through the sharing of the news, to personal grief, to a sense of uncertainty or disbelief. But we also identify more critical and cultural responses to such death announcements in relation to misinformation and the quality of digital news, or cultures of hoax and disinformation on social media. Here we see the performance of online identity through a form that we describe, following Bourdieu as ‘platform cultural capital’.

scholarly journals Influence of Social Media on the Indian Population’s Perception of Orthodontic-Related Posts: A Mixed Method Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 030157422110262
Author(s):  
Tarulatha R Shyagali ◽  
Ayesha Rathore ◽  
Abhishek Gupta ◽  
Anil Tiwari ◽  
Shanya Kapoor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Orthodontic Treatment ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
Method Analysis ◽  
Insight Into

Introduction: In little more than a decade, social media has gone from being an entertainment source to a fully integrated part of nearly every aspect of daily life. This study aimed to provide an insight into how orthodontics-related social media posts are looked upon by the Indian population. Material and Methods: Orthodontics-related social media posts were analyzed for the number of likes, shares, and comments. Comments were also scrutinized for determining whether they were appreciation comments or enquiries related to orthodontic treatment and procedure. Posts were collected from 3 platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. A mixed-methods approach was applied. First, all posts were structured according to a quantitative content analysis. Subsequently, qualitative analysis was performed to detect potential differences between the quality of response to posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Using one-way ANOVA test, differences in the data were tabulated. A Chi- Square test was used to analyze the qualitative differences in the comments, which were scrutinized to check if they were appreciation comments or enquiries/doubts related to the posts. Results: There was a significant difference between the numbers of likes, shares, and comments. Appreciation comments were more in number than enquiries. Instagram had the maximum number of likes, followed by Facebook and Twitter ( P < .00001). Facebook had more shares in comparison to Twitter. Upon an analysis done on the number of comments, Facebook was found to have the highest number of comments, followed by Instagram and Twitter. All the results were significant, with P < .00001. Conclusion: It can be concluded that social media awareness related to orthodontics posts among Indians is gaining pace, and a lot can be achieved using these social media platforms to spread awareness related to orthodontic treatment.

scholarly journals Social Media Usage and its Effect on Quality of Adolescent Social Relationships

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadie Saltzman
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Relationship ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
The Social ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Does the number of social media platforms that an adolescent uses have an effect on the quality of their social relationships? As social media continues to grow and evolve, sociologists have begun to explore its effect on an individual’s everyday life. I propose that the more social media platforms that an adolescent uses, the more they will experience negative effects on their social relationships. Using survey data from 786 respondents living in the United States, ages 13 to 17 and collected by the Pew Research Center in 2014 and 2015, regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between social media usage and its effect on quality of adolescent social relationships, controlling for sex and age. The bivariate results show a statistically significant, positive but weak association between number of social media platforms used and the social relationship experience scale. In the multivariate results, this association was still statistically significant. Additionally, the multivariate results show that the control variables, sex and age, have no significant effect on one’s social relationship experience. Therefore, these results show that the more social media platforms used, the more negative a social relationship experience an adolescent will have. The results support the hypothesis and indicate that adolescents who interact with a higher number of social media platforms will experience an increased negative effect on their social relationships. In future studies, researchers should investigate how specific social media platforms influence social relationships. Additionally, this type of research should not only continue, but should refine its methods as social media continues to quickly grow and evolve.

scholarly journals Intentional or inadvertent fake news sharing? Fact-checking warnings and users’ interaction with social media content

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu ◽  
Patricia Delponti ◽  
Carmen Rodríguez-Wangüemert
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
False News ◽  
News Sharing

The main social media platforms have been implementing strategies to minimize fake news dissemination. These include identifying, labeling, and penalizing –via news feed ranking algorithms– fake publications. Part of the rationale behind this approach is that the negative effects of fake content arise only when social media users are deceived. Once debunked, fake posts and news stories should therefore become harmless. Unfortunately, the literature shows that the effects of misinformation are more complex and tend to persist and even backfire after correction. Furthermore, we still do not know much about how social media users evaluate content that has been fact-checked and flagged as false. More worryingly, previous findings suggest that some people may intentionally share made up news on social media, although their motivations are not fully explained. To better understand users’ interaction with social media content identified or recognized as false, we analyze qualitative and quantitative data from five focus groups and a sub-national online survey (N = 350). Findings suggest that the label of ‘false news’ plays a role –although not necessarily central– in social media users’ evaluation of the content and their decision (not) to share it. Some participants showed distrust in fact-checkers and lack of knowledge about the fact-checking process. We also found that fake news sharing is a two-dimensional phenomenon that includes intentional and unintentional behaviors. We discuss some of the reasons why some of social media users may choose to distribute fake news content intentionally.

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