Conspiracy beliefs and vaccination intent for COVID-19 in an infodemic

Background The massive, free and unrestricted exchange of information on the social media during the Covid-19 pandemic has set fertile grounds for fear, uncertainty and the rise of fake news related to the virus. This “viral” spread of fake news created an “infodemic” that threatened the compliance with public health guidelines and recommendations. Objective This study aims to describe the trust in social media platforms and the exposure to fake news about COVID-19 in Lebanon and to explore their association with vaccination intent. Methods In this cross-sectional study conducted in Lebanon during July–August, 2020, a random sample of 1052 participants selected from a mobile-phone database responded to an anonymous structured questionnaire after obtaining informed consent (response rate = 40%). The questionnaire was conducted by telephone and measured socio-demographics, sources and trust in sources of information and exposure to fake news, social media activity, perceived threat and vaccination intent. Results Results indicated that the majority of participants (82%) believed that COVID-19 is a threat and 52% had intention to vaccinate. Exposure to fake/ unverified news was high (19.7% were often and 63.8% were sometimes exposed, mainly to fake news shared through Watsapp and Facebook). Trust in certain information sources (WHO, MoPH and TV) increased while trust in others (Watsapp, Facebook) reduced vaccination intent against Covid-19. Believing in the man-made theory and the business control theory significantly reduced the likelihood of vaccination intent (Beta = 0.43; p = 0.01 and Beta = -0.29; p = 0.05) respectively. Conclusion In the context of the infodemic, understanding the role of exposure to fake news and of conspiracy believes in shaping healthy behavior is important for increasing vaccination intent and planning adequate response to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Adolescents with chronic disease and social media: a cross-sectional study

Archives of Disease in Childhood ◽

10.1136/archdischild-2019-317996 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 105 (8) ◽

pp. 744-748 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Laura De Nardi ◽

Andrea Trombetta ◽

Sergio Ghirardo ◽

Maria Rita Lucia Genovese ◽

Egidio Barbi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Chronic Disease ◽

Descriptive Analysis ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 ◽

Social Dimension ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Inflammatory Bowel

ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the attitude of adolescents with chronic diseases toward social media exposure, focusing in particular on Facebook.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingAn anonymous semistructured survey was distributed to an Italian hospital-based cohort of adolescents with chronic disease to explore the role of Facebook in their daily life.PatientsWe recruited 212 adolescents (aged between 13 and 24 years) with a diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease, diabetes mellitus type 1 and cystic fibrosis.ResultsTwo hundred and seven of the 212 (97.6%) expressed the need of sharing their illness experience with friends, 201 out of 212 (94.8%) usually searched information on the internet to find new therapies and to discover their prognosis. One hundred and forty-nine out of 212 adolescents (70.3%) perceived dependence on their parents as the most negative aspect of having a chronic disease, and 200 out of 212 (94.3%) were looking for friends with the same disease on Facebook. Two hundred and ten out of 212 (99.1%) did not want their doctors or nurse on their social media platforms. During the active disease periods, the time spent with social media increased from an average of 5 to 11 hours.ConclusionsThis descriptive analysis focused on the Facebook impact on chronic disease perception among affected adolescents. It showed that they used to spend an increased amount of time on this platform during disease flare-up and highlighted their wish of keeping doctors and nurses away from their social dimension.

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Public’s view on myths related to COVID-19: a web-based cross-sectional study in Nepal

International Journal of Scientific Reports ◽

10.18203/issn.2454-2156.intjscirep20205496 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 50

Author(s):

Deeependra Prasad Sarraf ◽

Shashi Keswhar ◽

Pramendra Prasad Gupta

Keyword(s):

Online Survey ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Vital Role ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Web Based ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

The Social ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Study Participants

Background: The global pandemic COVID-19 has created havoc. Various myths prevail among public that hamper them from adopting evidence based preventive measures to minimize the spread of COVID-19 and to seek timely health advice. The aim of the study was to find out the public’s view on myths related to COVID-19 in educated Nepalese population.Methods: A cross-sectional web-based online survey was conducted in educated public in Nepal during May, 2020. A self-designed questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic variables and 21 myths was prepared using Google forms via docs.google.com/forms. The responses were recorded on a 3-point scale (agree, disagree, do not know). The Google form link was sent to the study participants via the social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber. Descriptive statistics mean, frequency and percentage were used to analyze the data using SPSS version 22. Results: Out of 270, 33.7%, 33.3% and 37% participants agreed that eating lemon, turmeric and garlic prevents us from COVID-19 respectively. Thirty seven percent participants believed that spraying bleach or disinfectant into our body will protect us against COVID-19. The overall view of participants toward the myths related to COVID-19 was ‘agree’ (17.3%), ‘disagree’ (59.2%) and ‘don’t know’ (23.5%).Conclusions: Myths regarding COVID-19 prevailed among majority of the participants in this study. There is an urgent need to educate the public regarding various preventive approaches for COVID-19 issues. Media and government agencies have a vital role in creating awareness to adopt evidence-based facts.

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Assessment of awareness and satisfaction of online renewal of practising license among pharmacists in Nigeria

Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research ◽

10.4314/tjpr.v20i1.24 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 169-175

Author(s):

Ukamaka G. Okafor ◽

Abubakar Ibrahim Jatau ◽

Olukemi Alabi ◽

Elijah N.A. Mohammed

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Customer Service ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Application Process ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Online Application ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

License Renewal ◽

Online Process

Purpose: To assess the awareness and satisfaction of online renewal of practice licence among pharmacists in Nigeria.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among pharmacists in Nigeria. Participants were recruited through; online (via social media platforms) or in person at Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) office during application for renewal of license.Results: A total of 878 participants completed the survey. Of this, 97.4 and 79.9 % were aware and satisfied with the online process, respectively. The respondents rated the process as excellent (19.1 %), fair (22.2 %), good (55.0 %) and poor (3.6 %). Most of the reported challenges included linking payment of association dues with license renewal, poor customer service and password retrieval.Conclusions: The level of awareness and satisfaction of the online renewal of annual licence among pharmacists in Nigeria is high. Measures are still needed to improve the online application process. Keywords: Pharmacists Council, Online, Licence, Pharmacist, Practice

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Assessment of Altmetrics and PlumX Metrics Scoring as Mechanisms to Evaluate the Top 100 Trending Hidradenitis Suppurativa Articles on Social Media: Cross-Sectional Study

JMIR Dermatology ◽

10.2196/23724 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. e23724

Author(s):

Chapman Wei ◽

Aaron Fong ◽

Theodore Quan ◽

Puneet Gupta ◽

Adam Friedman

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Hidradenitis Suppurativa ◽

Citation Count ◽

Scientific Information ◽

Correlation Coefficients ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Scientific Article ◽

Journal Title ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Social Media Platforms

Background Dermatologists are increasingly utilizing social media platforms to disseminate scientific information. New tools, such as altmetrics and PlumX metrics, have been made available to rapidly capture the level of scientific article dissemination across social media platforms. However, no studies have been performed to assess the level of scientific article dissemination across social media regarding hidradenitis suppurativa, a disease that is still currently not well understood. Objective The aim of our study was to evaluate the utility of altmetrics and PlumX metrics by characterizing the top 100 “trending” hidradenitis suppurativa articles in the altmetric database by the altmetric attention score and PlumX score. Methods Altmetric data components of the top 100 hidradenitis suppurativa articles were extracted from the altmetric database. Article citation count was found using Web of Science. PlumX field-weighted impact scores for each article were collected from the Scopus database. Journal title, open-access status, article type, and study design of original articles were assessed. Additionally, the altmetric attention score, PlumX score, and citation count were log transformed and adjusted by +1 for linear regression, and Spearman correlation coefficients were utilized to determine correlations. Results Most of the top 100 “trending” hidradenitis suppurativa articles were published in JAMA Dermatology (n=27, 27%). The median altmetric attention score, PlumX score, and citation count were 25.5, 3.7, and 10.5, respectively. The most mentions regarding social media platforms came from Twitter. Although no correlation was observed between the citation count and altmetric attention score (r2=0.019, P=.17), positive correlation was observed between the citation count and PlumX score (r2=0.469, P<.001). Conclusions Our research demonstrated that citation count is not correlated with the altmetric attention score, but is strongly correlated with the PlumX score regarding hidradenitis suppurativa articles at this point in time. With the continual increase of social media usage by medical professionals and researchers, this study can help investigators understand the best way to captivate their audience.

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Social Media and Academic Impact: Do Early Tweets Correlate With Future Citations?

Ear Nose & Throat Journal ◽

10.1177/01455613211042113 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 014556132110421

Author(s):

Nilan G. Vaghjiani ◽

Vatsal Lal ◽

Nima Vahidi ◽

Ali Ebadi ◽

Matthew Carli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Citation Rate ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Academic Impact ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

The Mean ◽

The Difference ◽

Number Of Citations

Objective: Determine whether social media platforms can influence article impact as measured by citations. Methods: Cross-sectional study that analyzed articles published in the top 10 otolaryngology journals by Eigenfactor score in January 2015. Total accumulated Twitter mentions and citations were recorded in 2021. The main outcomes examined the difference in citations, tweets, article types, and author counts accumulated over a 5-year period for all articles that were either tweeted or nontweeted. Results: A total of 3094 articles were included for analysis. The average article was cited 11.2 ± 13.2 times and tweeted 2.10 ± 4.0 times. Sixty-four percent of the articles had at least one tweet. Over the study period, there was a statistically significant difference in mean number of citations between tweeted articles (12.1 ± 15.0) versus nontweeted articles (9.6 ± 10.5) citations, representing a 26% difference ( P < .001). Review articles had the highest mean citations (19.4 ± 23.4) while editorials had the lowest mean citations (2.8 ± 6.9). Tweets peaked in the year of publication, but citations continued to rise in the subsequent years. Tweeted articles’ peak citation rate change was +1.27 mean citations per year, compared to +0.99 mean citations per year in nontweeted articles. The mean author count in tweeted articles (5.40 ± 3.1) was not significantly different than the mean author count in nontweeted articles (5.19 ± 2.65, P = .0794). Conclusion: These data suggest a moderate correlation between tweets and article citations, but a clear difference in the number of citations in articles tweeted versus those with no tweets. Thus, dissemination of knowledge may be impacted by social medial platforms such as Twitter.

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Social media marketing and customer engagement : a focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa

Journal of Contemporary Management ◽

10.35683/jcm20065.96 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 48-69

Author(s):

B URBAN ◽

◽

TL MAPHATHE ◽

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Media ◽

Small And Medium Enterprises ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Social Media Marketing ◽

Customer Engagement ◽

Primary Data ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Medium Enterprises

Social media platforms are increasingly used by SMEs who have fewer resources and need to rely on social media marketing to engage with their customers. This article investigates the extent to which social media platforms specifically Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter contribute to increased customer engagement. While past studies have concentrated on the adoption of social media in predominantly western contexts, this research is focused on SMEs in a relatively under-researched African market context, South Africa. The research design was a quantitative cross-sectional study relying on primary data collection, where hypotheses were tested using statistical analyses in terms of correlational and regression analyses. Results support the hypotheses where the use of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter platforms show a significant and positive relationship with increased customer engagement. The findings have management implications where owner-managers should make use of social media by maintaining and growing an extensive network of ties to both collect information and identify resources, as well as to build a reputation and engage with their customers.

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Youth Exposure to Hate in the Online Space: An Exploratory Analysis

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17228531 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (22) ◽

pp. 8531

Author(s):

Nigel Harriman ◽

Neil Shortland ◽

Max Su ◽

Tyler Cote ◽

Marcia A. Testa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Academic Performance ◽

Risk Perception ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Parental Supervision ◽

Hate Groups ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Logistic Regression Models ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Online Disinhibition

Today’s youth have extensive access to the internet and frequently engage in social networking activities using various social media platforms and devices. This is a phenomenon that hate groups are exploiting when disseminating their propaganda. This study seeks to better understand youth exposure to hateful material in the online space by exploring predictors of such exposure including demographic characteristics (age, gender, and race), academic performance, online behaviors, online disinhibition, risk perception, and parents/guardians’ supervision of online activities. We implemented a cross-sectional study design, using a paper questionnaire, in two high schools in Massachusetts (USA), focusing on students 14 to 19 years old. Logistic regression models were used to study the association between independent variables (demographics, online behaviors, risk perception, parental supervision) and exposure to hate online. Results revealed an association between exposure to hate messages in the online space and time spent online, academic performance, communicating with a stranger on social media, and benign online disinhibition. In our sample, benign online disinhibition was also associated with students’ risk of encountering someone online that tried to convince them of racist views. This study represents an important contribution to understanding youth’s risk factors of exposure to hateful material online.

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Flattening the Curve of Fake News in the Epoch of Infodemic

Deep Fakes, Fake News, and Misinformation in Online Teaching and Learning Technologies - Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-6474-5.ch007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 143-161

Author(s):

Oluwole Olumide Durodolu ◽

Collence Takaingenhamo Chisita ◽

Tinyiko Vivian Dube

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Digital Media ◽

Research Methodology ◽

Political Stability ◽

Fake News ◽

The Social ◽

Social Media Platforms

Globally, no country has been spared by the spectre of the COVID-19 pandemic and infodemic that continues to wreak havoc on the socio-economic and political stability of governments and communities. The oxymoronic nature of fake news raises many questions with regards to the issues of authenticity because the concept of news is underpinned by verifiability. While fake news lacks variability, it is surprising that its digital imprint on the social media platforms continues to leave indelible marks that will undermine democracy, responsible journalism, and the benefits of the digital media. It is against this background that this chapter seeks to find strategies to flatten the curve of fake news in the epoch of the COVID-19 pandemic and infodemic, an epistemic challenge. The chapter is based on a positivist research methodology that sought to gather views from the study respondents on their epistemic experiences with fake news amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and infodemic. It seeks to gather views to counter the upsurge of fake news amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Fake or real news? Understanding the gratifications and personality traits of individuals sharing fake news on social media platforms

Aslib Journal of Information Management ◽

10.1108/ajim-08-2021-0232 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Brinda Sampat ◽

Sahil Raj

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Information Sharing ◽

Fake News ◽

Content Type ◽

Social Media Platform ◽

The Social ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Media Platform ◽

News Sharing

Purpose“Fake news” or misinformation sharing using social media sites into public discourse or politics has increased dramatically, over the last few years, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic causing concern. However, this phenomenon is inadequately researched. This study examines fake news sharing with the lens of stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, uses and gratification theory (UGT) and big five personality traits (BFPT) theory to understand the motivations for sharing fake news and the personality traits that do so. The stimuli in the model comprise gratifications (pass time, entertainment, socialization, information sharing and information seeking) and personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness and neuroticism). The feeling of authenticating or instantly sharing news is the organism leading to sharing fake news, which forms the response in the study.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual model was tested by the data collected from a sample of 221 social media users in India. The data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling to determine the effects of UGT and personality traits on fake news sharing. The moderating role of the platform WhatsApp or Facebook was studied.Findings The results suggest that pass time, information sharing and socialization gratifications lead to instant sharing news on social media platforms. Individuals who exhibit extraversion, neuroticism and openness share news on social media platforms instantly. In contrast, agreeableness and conscientiousness personality traits lead to authentication news before sharing on the social media platform.Originality/value This study contributes to social media literature by identifying the user gratifications and personality traits that lead to sharing fake news on social media platforms. Furthermore, the study also sheds light on the moderating influence of the choice of the social media platform for fake news sharing.

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Fake News Finds an Audience

Journalism and Truth in an Age of Social Media ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190900250.003.0014 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 201-222

Author(s):

Erik P. Bucy ◽

John E. Newhagen

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Big Data ◽

Information Processing ◽

Educational Strategy ◽

Fake News ◽

False Information ◽

User Experiences ◽

The Social ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Media Systems

The vulnerabilities shown by media systems and individual users exposed to attacks on truth from fake news and computational propaganda in recent years should be considered in light of the characteristics and concerns surrounding big data, especially the volume and velocity of messages delivered over social media platforms that tax the average user’s capacity to determine their truth value in real time. For reasons explained by the psychology of information processing, a high percentage of fake news that reaches audiences is accepted as true, particularly when distractions and interruptions typify user experiences with technology. As explained in this essay, fake news thrives in environments lacking editorial policing and epistemological vigilance, making the social media milieu ideally suited for spreading false information. In response, we suggest the value of an educational strategy to combat the dilemma that digital disinformation poses to informed citizenship.

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