scholarly journals Infodemic and Fake News in Spain during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1781 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Jesús Fernández-Torres ◽  
Ana Almansa-Martínez ◽  
Rocío Chamizo-Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Credibility ◽  
False News ◽  
Global Agenda ◽  
The Impact

Internet, new technologies and social networks have changed the consumption and dissemination of information. The world is witnessing the proliferation of so-called false news, especially since the beginning of 2020, when COVID-19 became the main issue on the global agenda. Alleged government actions, remedies, advice, etc., are the cause of a multitude of messages that are often false. Through surveys (1115 responses were obtained) and a review of the literature, we explore how the proliferation of COVID-19’s false news affects and impacts public opinion in Spain. We also examine how citizens are being informed about the pandemic, identify the main channels of communication used and discover the impact of misinformation. The main conclusions are that, in Spain, citizens are interested in information related to the coronavirus, but there is a lack of media credibility and reliability; the social networks and instant messaging are considered the channels that transmit the greatest amount of false news.

scholarly journals NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND THE CURRENT COMMUNICATIONS MODEL IN THE 2018 BRAZILIAN ELECTIONS

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 1056
Author(s):  
Edilene Lôbo ◽  
José Luiz Bolzan de Morais
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Free Thought ◽  
The Impact

This article considers the impact of new technologies in the 2018 Brazilian elections, and investigates the possibilities of changes due to the prominent use of social networks to directly connect citizens and candidates, without the customary intervention of political parties and traditional media. It also questions the role of fake news in the electoral process, and the means to fight it, without undermining free thought, as an essential human right for the practice of citizenship in the new digital age.

Poisoning the information well?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edson C. Tandoc Jr. ◽  
Andrew Duffy ◽  
S Mo Jones-Jang ◽  
Winnie Goh Wen Pin
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Media Study ◽  
News Discourse ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Credibility ◽  
News Credibility ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Trust Information

Abstract This study examines the impact of fake news discourse on perceptions of news media credibility. If participants are told they have been exposed to fake news, does this lead them to trust information institutions less, including the news media? Study 1 (n = 188) found that news media credibility decreased when participants were told they saw fake news, while news credibility did not change when participants were told they saw real news. Study 2 (n = 400) found that those who saw fake news – and were told they saw a fake news post – decreased their trust in the news media while those who saw fake news and were not debriefed did not change their perceptions of the news media. This shows that the social impact of fake news is not limited to its direct consequences of misinforming individuals, but also includes the potentially adverse effects of discussing fake news.

scholarly journals New technologies, Social Media and Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (41) ◽  
pp. 253-274
Author(s):  
Edilene Lôbo ◽  
José Luis Bolzan de Morais
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Free Thought ◽  
The Impact

This article aims to consider the impact of new technologies in the Brazilian elections of 2018, questioning about the possibilities of its transformation with the prominent use of social networks to directly connect citizens and candidates, without the customary intervention of political parties and traditional media. It also aims to discuss the role of fake news in the electoral process and the means to fight it, so it does not denature the free thought formation as a human right essential to the practice of citizenship in the new digital age.

scholarly journals FACT-CHECKING: AN IMPORTANT TOOL TO COMBAT FAKE NEWS ON HEALTH IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC

2021 ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Media Networks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Quantitative Descriptive ◽  
City State ◽  
False News

Objective: To demonstrate the importance of Fact-Checking tools in combating health fake news in the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Quantitative descriptive study, conducted during the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic. Fake news were accounted and identified through the website chequeado.com, registered in the Agência Lupo and Aos Fatos checking platforms, belonging to the International Fact-Checking Network, an international understanding with recognized news verification methodologies. The registered news originated from the social media/networks Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, and websites. They were later classified according to content in Conspiracy Theory, Prevention/Treatment/Cure, Authorities/Agency Measures, Situation of a city, state and country, Causes, Symptoms, Public Figure and False Context. Results: 529 fake news about coronavirus were obtained, of these 306 were from the Agência Lupo platform, and 223 from the Aos Fatos platform. A total of 99 (18.72%) fake news were about Conspiracy Theory 99 (18.72%) Authorities/Agency Measures and 98 (18.53%) False Context. As for the origin of fake news 382 (72.21%) were from Facebook and 67 (12.66%) from Whatsapp. Conclusion: The Fact-Checking tools in combating misinformation on social networks are important because they deny false news, unlikely allegations, and no justification related to the Covid-19 pandemic. These check sites alert social networks, policymakers, and the public to create measures that educate and protect the integrity and health of individuals and prevent them from falling victim to misinformation.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and Quarantine: The Role and Impact of Media in Kosovo's Society

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 3001-3009
Author(s):  
Ferdi Kamberi ◽  
◽  
Besim Gollopeni ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Test Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Material Interests ◽  
Social Insecurity ◽  
The Media ◽  
False News

The outbreak of COVID-19 and the quarantine affected Kosovo society by highlighting the media's role and importance in informing and raising citizen's citizens in a pandemic situation. At a time like this, besides the information and citizen's awareness, this situation was accompanied by a lot of fake news, complicating the social and psychological problems of the audience/citizens, leading to fear, anxiety, and social insecurity. Many media were driven by the desire of material interests, especially the online portals, social networks, etc., offering fake or false news to the public for the sole purpose of their material gain. This study aims to research the Kosovar media's role and impact during the pandemic and quarantine time. For this research, we have used the online questionnaire (Google Form) during July and August 2020. The target group was the population over 15 (N=908) in Kosovo's entire territory. T-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and other methods were used to analyze the data. The study results show that 51% of Kosovar citizens informed about COVID-19 during the pandemic and quarantine had used social networks. More than 63.7% of citizens were heavily influenced and, on average, by fake news. Fake news and misinformation from the media in Kosovo society hurt specific society categories, especially those with lower levels of education and social and economic problems, causing fear, social anxiety, and social insecurity.

Identity concerns drive belief: The impact of partisan identity on the belief and dissemination of true and false news

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Pereira ◽  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel ◽  
Elizabeth Ann Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Beliefs ◽  
System P ◽  
False News ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
The Impact

Political misinformation, often called “fake news”, represents a threat to our democracies because it impedes citizens from being appropriately informed. Evidence suggests that fake news spreads more rapidly than real news—especially when it contains political content. The present article tests three competing theoretical accounts that have been proposed to explain the rise and spread of political (fake) news: (1) the ideology hypothesis— people prefer news that bolsters their values and worldviews; (2) the confirmation bias hypothesis—people prefer news that fits their pre-existing stereotypical knowledge; and (3) the political identity hypothesis—people prefer news that allows their political in-group to fulfill certain social goals. We conducted three experiments in which American participants read news that concerned behaviors perpetrated by their political in-group or out-group and measured the extent to which they believed the news (Exp. 1, Exp. 2, Exp. 3), and were willing to share the news on social media (Exp. 2 and 3). Results revealed that Democrats and Republicans were both more likely to believe news about the value-upholding behavior of their in-group or the value-undermining behavior of their out-group, supporting a political identity hypothesis. However, although belief was positively correlated with willingness to share on social media in all conditions, we also found that Republicans were more likely to believe and want to share apolitical fake new. We discuss the implications for theoretical explanations of political beliefs and application of these concepts in in polarized political system.

scholarly journals Linguistic drivers of misinformation diffusion on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giandomenico Di Domenico ◽  
Annamaria Tuan ◽  
Marco Visentin
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Textual Cues ◽  
Twitter Users

AbstractIn the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedent amounts of fake news and hoax spread on social media. In particular, conspiracy theories argued on the effect of specific new technologies like 5G and misinformation tarnished the reputation of brands like Huawei. Language plays a crucial role in understanding the motivational determinants of social media users in sharing misinformation, as people extract meaning from information based on their discursive resources and their skillset. In this paper, we analyze textual and non-textual cues from a panel of 4923 tweets containing the hashtags #5G and #Huawei during the first week of May 2020, when several countries were still adopting lockdown measures, to determine whether or not a tweet is retweeted and, if so, how much it is retweeted. Overall, through traditional logistic regression and machine learning, we found different effects of the textual and non-textual cues on the retweeting of a tweet and on its ability to accumulate retweets. In particular, the presence of misinformation plays an interesting role in spreading the tweet on the network. More importantly, the relative influence of the cues suggests that Twitter users actually read a tweet but not necessarily they understand or critically evaluate it before deciding to share it on the social media platform.

scholarly journals The phenomenon of "digital" death: formation and genesis of the attitude to death in social networks of students

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 1262-1275
Author(s):  
Vera B. Nikishina ◽  
Marina V. Sokolskaya ◽  
Oksana A. Musatova ◽  
Irina M. Loskutova ◽  
Irina Zapesotskaya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Fear Of Death ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Attitude To Death ◽  
User Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Attitudes Towards Death ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, we study the phenomenon of “digital” death, its genesis and the attitudes towards death in the context of social networks of students. As a result of the investigation we have discovered different forms of “digital death and the ways students react to it in social networks. We further investigate the origins of different user attitudes towards “digital death” and the impact of manipulative relation to death in social networks on the social reality. Some students stage their own death on social networks by posting images on their homepage, which has the intentions (i) to attract public attention, (ii) to express their auto aggression (iii) to make fun of death and (iv) to reduce their own anxiety of death by "sharing" the fear with other students. Our analysis shows that the main purpose of staging one’s death on social networks is to reduce the fear of death by creating plans, playing. Keywords: Students, cyberspace, social networks, death, "digital" death, attitude to the death in the social networks.

scholarly journals LIFE ON DISPLAY: WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO EXPOSE YOUR ACTIONS ON THE SOCIAL NETWORK

2021 ◽  
Vol 6(72) (4) ◽  
pp. 41-48
Author(s):  
A. E. Starchenko ◽  
M. V. Semina
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Reference Group ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
To Receive

Social networks have emerged relatively recently in human life, but have already become an integral part of it. Companies tell about themselves, their activities, innovations, promotions and events in their profiles. This helps increase audience coverage, tell more about your brand, products, services. People in personal accounts have the opportunity to share their lives and creativity through photos, videos and texts. Now it is not necessary to receive higher education to become an operator, director or actor whose talent is recognized by society. It is enough to start a page on the social network and start sharing your knowledge and creativity. To find out why people post photos, videos and write texts on their social networks, a pilot sociological study was carried out. The method of deep interview with active users of social networks was chosen to carry out the study. The interview allowed getting unique information, to learn the opinion of users about social networks, the impact of the new way of communication on their life, to identify the reasons why users start and maintain profiles. The respondents were 20 users of social networks between the ages of 19 and 22. Interviewees have profiles on the most popular Instagram and Vkontakte networks. As a result of the analysis of the interview, a tendency was revealed to differ in the perception of users of their actions on the social network and similar actions of other users. Their content is perceived by them as opportunities to be in sight, as a resource to form their social status and an element of influence on their reference group. And the same content published by others is perceived as boasting.

The Impact of Social Networks on Science Students' Academic Performance in Ondo State Senior Secondary Schools, Nigeria

2021 ◽  
pp. 50-63
Author(s):  
Jethro Oludare OLOJO
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Science Students ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ondo State ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Senior Secondary Schools ◽  
Senior Secondary ◽  
The Impact

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of social network usage on science students’ academic achievements in Ondo State’s senior secondary schools. The study was also to find the extent to which students under investigation used the social network platforms and the frequencies of their visits. In order to achieve this, a structured questionnaire was designed and administered to students from the three senatorial districts that made up the state. A multistage; which involved simple random and purposive sampling approaches was used to select the sample for the study. 150 copies of the questionnaire were distributed; out of which, 148 (98.78%) copies were returned. For the study, four research questions and two research hypotheses were developed. The hypotheses were assessed using the student's - t statistic at 0.05 significant level; using SPSS version 20 while the research questions formulated were evaluated using frequency counts and percentages. The study revealed that Ondo State senior secondary school science students can efficiently use the social network platforms for academic activities with male students being more proficient than their female counterparts. The study also revealed that the usage of social networks has assisted students to improve their academic performance; irrespective of their classes. Besides, the study showed that Facebook was the most popular of all the social network platforms. To this end, the researcher recommended that teachers, parents, and guidance should monitor the activities of their wards on the social network sites so that they can use the platforms to benefit their lots. Teachers should also use the advantage of students’ exposure to social networking to change their teaching methods from traditional one to online teaching.

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