scholarly journals Prevalence and source analysis of COVID-19 misinformation of 138 countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Sayeed Al-Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Content Analysis Method ◽  
The Us ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Internet Literacy

This study analyzed 9,657 pieces of misinformation that originated in 138 countries and fact-checked by 94 organizations. Collected from Poynter Institute's official website and following a quantitative content analysis method along with descriptive statistical analysis, this research produces some novel insights regarding COVID-19 misinformation. The findings show that India (15.94%), the US (9.74%), Brazil (8.57%), and Spain (8.03%) are the four most misinformation-affected countries. Based on the results, it is presumed that the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation can have a positive association with the COVID-19 situation. Social media (84.94%) produces the highest amount of misinformation, and the internet (90.5%) as a whole is responsible for most of the COVID-19 misinformation. Moreover, Facebook alone produces 66.87% misinformation among all social media platforms. Of all countries, India (18.07%) produced the highest amount of social media misinformation, perhaps thanks to the country's higher internet penetration rate, increasing social media consumption, and users' lack of internet literacy. On the other hand, countries like Turkey, the US, Brazil, and the Philippines where either political control over media is intense or political conservatism is apparent, experienced a higher amount of misinformation from mainstream media, political figures, and celebrities. Although the prevalence of misinformation was the highest in March 2020, given the present trends, it may likely to increase slightly in 2021.

scholarly journals Prevalence and source analysis of COVID-19 misinformation in 138 countries

IFLA Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 034003522110411
Author(s):  
Md. Sayeed Al-Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Penetration Rate ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Internet Penetration ◽  
Internet Literacy

This study analysed 9657 pieces of misinformation that originated in 138 countries and were fact-checked by 94 organizations to understand the prevalence and sources of misinformation in different countries. The results show that India (15.94%), the USA (9.74%), Brazil (8.57%) and Spain (8.03%) are the four most misinformation-affected countries. Based on the results, it is presumed that the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation can have a positive association with the COVID-19 situation. Social media (84.94%) produces the largest amount of misinformation, and the Internet (90.5%) as a whole is responsible for most of the COVID-19 misinformation. Moreover, Facebook alone produces 66.87% of the misinformation among all social media platforms. Of all the countries, India (18.07%) produced the largest amount of social media misinformation, perhaps thanks to the country’s higher Internet penetration rate, increasing social media consumption and users’ lack of Internet literacy.

Avenues to News and Diverse News Exposure Online: Comparing Direct Navigation, Social Media, News Aggregators, Search Queries, and Article Hyperlinks

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110091
Author(s):  
Magdalena Wojcieszak ◽  
Ericka Menchen-Trevino ◽  
Joao F. F. Goncalves ◽  
Brian Weeks
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
News Websites ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Media Platforms

The online environment dramatically expands the number of ways people can encounter news but there remain questions of whether these abundant opportunities facilitate news exposure diversity. This project examines key questions regarding how internet users arrive at news and what kinds of news they encounter. We account for a multiplicity of avenues to news online, some of which have never been analyzed: (1) direct access to news websites, (2) social networks, (3) news aggregators, (4) search engines, (5) webmail, and (6) hyperlinks in news. We examine the extent to which each avenue promotes news exposure and also exposes users to news sources that are left leaning, right leaning, and centrist. When combined with information on individual political leanings, we show the extent of dissimilar, centrist, or congenial exposure resulting from each avenue. We rely on web browsing history records from 636 social media users in the US paired with survey self-reports, a unique data set that allows us to examine both aggregate and individual-level exposure. Visits to news websites account for about 2 percent of the total number of visits to URLs and are unevenly distributed among users. The most widespread ways of accessing news are search engines and social media platforms (and hyperlinks within news sites once people arrive at news). The two former avenues also increase dissimilar news exposure, compared to accessing news directly, yet direct news access drives the highest proportion of centrist exposure.

scholarly journals Fake and Real News detection Using Python

2020 ◽  
pp. 423-428
Author(s):  
Fakhra Akhtar ◽  
Faizan Ahmed Khan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
False Information ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Negative Attributes ◽  
Entire Dataset ◽  
F Measure

<p>In the digital age, fake news has become a well-known phenomenon. The spread of false evidence is often used to confuse mainstream media and political opponents, and can lead to social media wars, hatred arguments and debates.Fake news is blurring the distinction between real and false information, and is often spread on social media resulting in negative views and opinions. Earlier Research describe the fact that false propaganda is used to create false stories on mainstream media in order to cause a revolt and tension among the masses The digital rights foundation DRF report, which builds on the experiences of 152 journalists and activists in Pakistan, presents that more than 88 % of the participants find social media platforms as the worst source for information, with Facebook being the absolute worst. The dataset used in this paper relates to Real and fake news detection. The objective of this paper is to determine the Accuracy , precision , of the entire dataset .The results are visualized in the form of graphs and the analysis was done using python. The results showed the fact that the dataset holds 95% of the accuracy. The number of actual predicted cases were 296. Results of this paper reveals that The accuracy of the model dataset is 95.26 % the precision results 95.79 % whereas recall and F-Measure shows 94.56% and 95.17% accuracy respectively.Whereas in predicted models there are 296 positive attributes , 308 negative attributes 17 false positives and 13 false negatives. This research recommends that authenticity of news should be analysed first instead of drafting an opinion, sharing fake news or false information is considered unethical journalists and news consumers both should act responsibly while sharing any news.</p>

New Media and Terrorism

2014 ◽  
pp. 184-196
Author(s):  
Pauline Hope Cheong
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Networks ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Hearts And Minds ◽  
Video Material

Beyond the widespread coverage of terrorism-related stories on international news outlets, we are witnessing the swift spread of alternative interpretations of these stories online. These alternative narratives typically involve digital transmediation or the remix, remediation, and viral dissemination of textual, audio, and video material on multiple new and social media platforms. This chapter discusses the role of new(er) media in facilitating the transmediated spread of extremist narratives, rumors, and political parody. Drawing from recent case studies based upon multi-modal analyses of digital texts on social media networks, including blogs, vlogs, Twitter, and Jihadist sites associated with acts of terror in Asia, Middle East, and North America, the chapter illustrates how digital transmediation significantly works oftentimes to construct counter narratives to government counter insurgency operations and mainstream media presentations. In discussing these examples, the chapter demonstrates how the new media points to varied narratives and reifies notions of national security, global politics, terrorism, and the media's role in framing the “War on Terrorism.” Moreover, a critical examination of remix texts and digital mashups of popular artifacts inform a Web 2.0 understanding of how the creative communication practices of online prosumers (hybrid consumers and producers) contest dominant interests in the online ideological battlefield for hearts and minds.

Political communication Modi style: A case study of the demonetization campaign on Twitter

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usha M. Rodrigues ◽  
Michael Niemann
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
News Media ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Government Websites

Abstract Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) is one of the world's most followed political leaders on Twitter. During the 2014 and 2019 election campaigns, he and his party used various social media networking and the Internet services to engage with young, educated, middle-class voters in India. Since his first sweeping win in the 2014 elections, Modi's political communication strategy has been to neglect the mainstream news media, and instead use social media and government websites to keep followers informed of his day-to-day engagements and government policies. This strategy of direct communication was followed even during a critical policy change, when in a politically risky move half-way through his five-year prime ministership, Modi's government scrapped more than 85 per cent of Indian currency notes in November 2016. He continued to largely shun the mainstream media and use his social media accounts and public rallies to communicate with the nation. As a case study of this direct communication strategy, this article presents the results of a study of Modi's Twitter articulations during the three months following the demonetization announcement. We use mediatization of politics discourse to consider the implications of this shift from mass communication via the mainstream news media, to the Indian prime minister's reliance on direct communication on social media platforms.

“They are just a danger”

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 809-830
Author(s):  
Rachelle Jereza ◽  
Sabina Perrino
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
National Crisis ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

Abstract In recent years, there has been much discussion about the role of social media platforms in the reproduction of exclusionary rhetoric leveled against social “others” in far-right contexts across the globe. While scholars have examined the ideologies underpinning exclusionary discourses, few have analyzed the discursive mechanisms through which such ideologies and “othered” social types become meaningful to ordinary citizens. In this article, we extend this conversation by analyzing digital discourses on Facebook and YouTube that pertain to Philippine “drug users” and racialized remarks against migrants in Italy through a chronotopic lens. We demonstrate that despite the historical, economic, and social differences, far-right ideologies are ordered through chronotopes of national crisis in both cases. Through these chronotopic worlds, despicable, “othered” social types such as “extracomunitari” in Italy and drug users in the Philippines, acquire coherence.

Branding the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-301
Author(s):  
Suvojit Bandopadhyaya
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
The Other ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Youtube Videos ◽  
Media Organizations ◽  
The One

This article will explore three crucial parameters that have been taken into consideration to attract millennials towards the Islamic State or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) brand: the first parameter is story creation around the historical significance of Islamic prophecies justifying the ISIS brand. Second is the symbolisms attached to the ISIS brand and its relevance (a flag, a leader, a logo, a caliphate) and, third, the actions or the sense of attachment to the ISIS brand in the form of practising ideology, gaining recognition and appeal to the millennials. The promotion of the brand has been advanced through diverse means – social media platforms, mainstream media organizations, YouTube videos, all orchestrated to gain recognition of a rising state brand on the one end and a brand of fear and intimidation on the other.

Examination of Social Media Platforms in Terms of Privacy Policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sema Bulat Demir ◽  
Ayten Övür
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Data Privacy ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Privacy Policy ◽  
Privacy Policies ◽  
Content Analysis Method ◽  
User Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Data Policy ◽  
Google Play

Nowadays, social media platforms are frequently being used on the Internet. When the users create an account for these platforms, they are required to accept the data privacy policy. With the approval of the data policy, major problems may arise such as observing every activity of users on the platform, violations of security and protection of personal data, and sharing user data with third parties for commercial purposes. In this regard, it is significant to examine the privacy policies of social media platforms in detail. In this research, we examined the privacy policies of the five most popular free applications on the communication section of the Google Play Store on January 30th, 2021. The privacy policies of these applications were analyzed with the content analysis method, and the research aims to reveal the area of utilization of the data that the users provide, with or without the permission of the user.

scholarly journals Social media and microtargeting: Political data processing and the consequences for Germany

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 205395171881184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orestis Papakyriakopoulos ◽  
Simon Hegelich ◽  
Morteza Shahrezaye ◽  
Juan Carlos Medina Serrano
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Data Intensive ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Us ◽  
Campaign Messages ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Individual

Amongst other methods, political campaigns employ microtargeting, a specific technique used to address the individual voter. In the US, microtargeting relies on a broad set of collected data about the individual. However, due to the unavailability of comparable data in Germany, the practice of microtargeting is far more challenging. Citizens in Germany widely treat social media platforms as a means for political debate. The digital traces they leave through their interactions provide a rich information pool, which can create the necessary conditions for political microtargeting following appropriate algorithmic processing. More specifically, data mining techniques enable information gathering about a people's general opinion, party preferences and other non-political characteristics. Through the application of data-intensive algorithms, it is possible to cluster users in respect of common attributes, and through profiling identify whom and how to influence. Applying machine learning algorithms, this paper explores the possibility to identify micro groups of users, which can potentially be targeted with special campaign messages, and how this approach can be expanded to large parts of the electorate. Lastly, based on these technical capabilities, we discuss the ethical and political implications for the German political system.

scholarly journals Measuring global multi-scale place connectivity using geotagged social media data

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenlong Li ◽  
Xiao Huang ◽  
Xinyue Ye ◽  
Yuqin Jiang ◽  
Yago Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Boundary Effect ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Human Movement ◽  
Connectivity Index ◽  
Contextual Knowledge ◽  
Spatial Interactions ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
The Us

AbstractShaped by human movement, place connectivity is quantified by the strength of spatial interactions among locations. For decades, spatial scientists have researched place connectivity, applications, and metrics. The growing popularity of social media provides a new data stream where spatial social interaction measures are largely devoid of privacy issues, easily assessable, and harmonized. In this study, we introduced a global multi-scale place connectivity index (PCI) based on spatial interactions among places revealed by geotagged tweets as a spatiotemporal-continuous and easy-to-implement measurement. The multi-scale PCI, demonstrated at the US county level, exhibits a strong positive association with SafeGraph population movement records (10% penetration in the US population) and Facebook’s social connectedness index (SCI), a popular connectivity index based on social networks. We found that PCI has a strong boundary effect and that it generally follows the distance decay, although this force is weaker in more urbanized counties with a denser population. Our investigation further suggests that PCI has great potential in addressing real-world problems that require place connectivity knowledge, exemplified with two applications: (1) modeling the spatial spread of COVID-19 during the early stage of the pandemic and (2) modeling hurricane evacuation destination choice. The methodological and contextual knowledge of PCI, together with the open-sourced PCI datasets at various geographic levels, are expected to support research fields requiring knowledge in human spatial interactions.

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