The contribution of vaccination to global health, from the past to the present: mandatory or social duty?

Vaccines have saved millions of lives and reduced the severity of many infections, but today the reduction in vaccine coverage has been reflected in the resurgence of epidemics of mumps, whooping cough, measles and chickenpox. This has happened because many people do not recognize the effectiveness of vaccination and fear the side effects, in other words, the main concern is the safety of the vaccines. As a consequence, the greater responsibility of the individual and respect for his will can lead authorities to less vigorously promote the “duty of vaccination”, which is also a social duty. Unfortunately, however, the attitude of individuals is guided by their beliefs about health, which are often supported by an erroneous perception of risk arising from false news.

Promoting engagement with social fact-checks online

Social corrections, wherein social media users correct one another, are an important mechanism for debunking online misinformation. But users who post misinformation only rarely engage with social corrections, instead typically choosing to ignore them. Here, we investigate how the social relationship between the corrector and corrected user affect the willingness to engage with corrective, debunking messages. We explore two key dimensions: (i) partisan agreement with, and (ii) social relationships between the user and the corrector. We conducted a randomized field experiment with Twitter users and a conceptual replication survey experiment with Amazon Mechanical Turk workers in which posts containing false news were corrected. We varied whether the corrector identified as a Democrat or Republican; and whether the corrector followed the user and liked three of their tweets the day before issuing the correction (creating a minimal social relationship). Surprisingly, we did not find evidence that shared partisanship increased a user’s probability of engaging with the correction. Conversely, forming a minimal social connection significantly increased engagement rate. A second survey experiment found that minimal social relationships foster a general norm of responding, such that people feel more obligated to respond – and think others expect them to respond more – to people who follow them, even outside the context of misinformation correction. These results emphasize social media’s ability to foster engagement with corrections via minimal social relationships, and have implications for effective, engaging fact-check delivery online.

Reactions to China-linked Fake News: Experimental Evidence from Taiwan

China is accused of conducting disinformation campaigns on Taiwan's social media. Existing studies on foreign interventions in democratic societies predict that such disinformation campaigns should lead to increasing partisan polarization within Taiwan. We argue that a backlash effect, making Taiwan's citizens more united against China, is equally plausible. We conduct a survey experiment exposing participants to a real-life rumour and rebuttal to test these competing hypotheses. We find, at best, mixed evidence for polarization. Although neither rumour nor rebuttal mention China, there is consistent evidence of backlash against China. Most notably, participants across the political spectrum are more inclined to support Taiwanese independence after viewing the rumour rebuttal. These findings indicate that citizens may put aside partisanship when confronted with false news that is plausibly linked to an external actor. We conclude by discussing the broader applicability of our theory and implications for cross-Strait relations.

Pilot study suggests online media literacy programming reduces belief in false news in Indonesia

Amidst the threat of digital misinformation, we offer a pilot study regarding the efficacy of an online social media literacy campaign aimed at empowering individuals in Indonesia with skills to help them identify misinformation. We found that users who engaged with our online training materials and educational videos were more likely to identify misinformation than those in our control group (total N=1,000). Given the promising results of our preliminary study, we plan to expand efforts in this area, and build upon lessons learned from this pilot study.

Fake News Explosion in Portugal and Brazil the Pandemic and Journalists’ Testimonies on Disinformation

Orchestrated manipulations spread lies and can create an environment of uncertainty in society, leading to concerns from politicians, scholars, educators, and journalists, among others. In this paper we explore what the emergence of fake news (understood as false news) represents for journalists, trying to answer the following question: Does false news pose a threat to the credibility of good journalism, causing a disruption of the traditional work? To answer it, we interviewed a sample of journalists from various media organizations in Portugal and Brazil. Among the main findings, journalists are aware that fake news is a problem to be faced, as the blame for the dissemination of false news erroneously lies with the profession. They are conscious that something must be done and agree that the best way to fight against fake news is to invest in media literacy. Most of the journalists of our sample think they must be also more cautious to check sources for veracity and for political motivations. The results show that there is a resolve to reinforce the role of journalism in society.

The Online Media Landscape in the Focus of Disinformation Campaigns in the Western Balkans: Albania, Kosova, and North Macedonia

In the conditions of a technological transformation of the media, professional credibility and reliability in information are fading due to the manipulative role that the media have taken. This paper, among other things, highlights exactly the editorial lines of the media, which do not build them on principles based on professional cause, but rather on the causes of political-media oligarchies. The fake news industry in the world is currently the most profitable product, and this is the most serious threat to democracies, which cannot be properly consolidated without a regulation in the dense "traffic" of online communication. In this industry Russia leads with its Sputnik, which has created a widespread establishment in the media space of Central and Eastern Europe. Preventing of this media "pandemic" is extremely complicated and costly, because this type of information is camouflaged in various forms and the public needs a proper media education to identify and differentiate fake news from true ones. Therefore, it is very necessary to create a national strategy of each state, to prevent the spread of this media "pandemic", while the most effective "virus" is the professionalization of the media and its detachment from the influence of political oligarchies. False news is creating its bedrock of influence and this is especially evident in the division of society as a result of political tensions and inter-ethnic discontent. Moreover, this paper shows that in such a divided society, the disinformation that circulates incessantly in the public space, sows fear. If a disinformation protection strategy were to be developed, then public confidence would not be in crisis, as it is currently in the Western Balkans, and the media would return to its primary role: independent and objective information.

Internet False News Information Feature Extraction and Screening Based on 5G Internet of Things Combined with Passive RFID

In this paper, the authenticity of news information on the 5G Internet of Things (IoT) is studied, and a network false news information screening platform is designed and optimized by IoT combined with passive RFID. The electronic license chain based on data sovereignty is established, in which, combined with the identity identification and strong correlation ability based on the electronic license chain, a cross-industry, cross-business, and cross-field behavior record base database is formed; then, a digital library is constructed based on this base library; finally, through data sharing and management, a false news information feature extraction and screening platform is formed for the orderly management and reasonable dispatch of government resources and reducing various risks. The main functional modules implemented by the platform are the acquisition of news data and comment data, the retrieval and analysis of news data, the false detection of online news, and the visualization of false news data. However, there is still much public who are not aware or do not understand that news truth is this dynamic form. Therefore, this paper aims to inform the public that news truth in news context is a dynamic process by 5G Internet of Things combined with passive RFID. The public understands the circumstances where news truth may be dynamic truth to avoid being misled by false news.

New Evidence of the Effect of Literacies in Reducing Disinformation and Fake News

Context: The production of scientific knowledge is not clearly understood by most individuals. In the information age, society faces challenges generated by discrediting institutions, including science, the proliferation of false news, disinformation and the relativisation of truth. These are significant issues that the school cannot refrain from discussing if it wants to educate for citizenship. Objectives: To investigate how conceptions about science influence and are influenced by fake news conveyed by the media and the contribution of literacy to minimise the effects of misinformation. Design: The methodology used in this research used a mixed-methods approach through content analysis of students’ responses combined with descriptive statistical techniques. Environment and participants: The research was carried out with 32 students, divided into two groups, attending the 9th grade of an elementary public school in Bom Princípio/RS. Data collection and analysis: Two questionnaires were applied: one for the conceptions about science and another to identify fake news. Results: Most students have a limited view of science and find it difficult to identify fake news through verification criteria. A correlation between student perceptions and the identification of false news was observed. Conclusions: Knowledge about science possibly enhances students’ perception of doubtful information. It is crucial to develop mediatic and information literacy skills as they can positively impact the identification of fake news and reduce its shares.

Digital literacy is associated with more discerning accuracy judgments but not sharing intentions

It has been widely argued that social media users with low digital literacy—who lack fluency with basic technological concepts related to the internet—are more likely to fall for online misinformation, but surprisingly little research has examined this association empirically. In a large survey experiment involving true and false news posts about politics and COVID-19, we found that digital literacy is indeed an important predictor of the ability to tell truth from falsehood when judging headline accuracy. However, digital literacy is not a robust predictor of users’ intentions to share true versus false headlines. This observation resonates with recent observations of a substantial disconnect between accuracy judgments and sharing intentions. Furthermore, our results suggest that lack of digital literacy may be useful for helping to identify people with inaccurate beliefs, but not for identifying those who are more likely to spread misinformation online.