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Description

With the recent COVID-19 outbreak, many challenges have arisen across the world. From overloaded hospitals to economic fallout to mental health issues, this pandemic is a new challenge for many people. Among the difficulties faced is the increase in misinformation, information "that is false due to lack of scientifically reliable evidence," regarding treatment, prevention, and the virus itself (Bahrami et al., 2019). An online survey was conducted during June 2020 to determine how media sources affects belief in COVID-19 misinformation. The results of the survey show that people are either using bad news sources, mainstream news is reiterating disinformation, and/or that information was changing so fast that people were generally confused about COVID-19 facts.The likelihood of believing in falsehoods was amplified in those who only received science and health news only from social media. This effect was reversed for those who used public health websites as a science and health news source.

Publisher

Utah State University

Funder

Peak Summer Research Fellowship

Publication Date

12-10-2020

Disciplines

Communication | Journalism Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Media and the COVID-19 Infodemic

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