"Este artigo discute a interseção entre desinformação e religião a partir de canais do YouTube tendo como cenário a pandemia de COVID-19. Para tanto, são analisados 75 materiais audiovisuais postados em dois canais do YouTube – do Pastor Silas Malafaia e do Instituto Plinio Corrêa de Olive
...
ira. No contexto da pandemia, tal tema permeou o debate de distintas áreas, dentre elas a religiosa. No entanto, muitas vezes esses conteúdos corroboravam com o que a OMS denominou como “infodemia” e com o processo de desinformação, já que diversos elementos contestatórios aos protocolos de saúde e sem qualquer evidência científica eram divulgados e circulavam, em especial, a partir de vídeos em mídias sociais, incluindo o YouTube. Em função da centralidade que a religião ocupa no cenário brasileiro, tais discursos possuem alcance e relevância na conformação do ambiente informacional dos indivíduos. Portanto, nesta pesquisa, buscou-se identificar as principais narrativas e elementos argumentativos encontrados nos vídeos dos dois canais que faziam qualquer tipo de referência à pandemia. Dentre os principais resultados destacam-se as narrativas que evidenciam teorias conspiratórias, o descredito à imprensa e a associação ao pânico e ao excesso de atenção em relação ao tema. Ademais, tais discursos são múltiplos e aparecem de forma distinta nos canais, o que reforça a complexidade do diálogo entre a desordem informativa e o papel desempenhado por influenciadores religiosos no ambiente digital." (Abstract)
more
"The publication is focused on the ways fake news, disinformation, misinformation and hateful statements are spread across society, predominantly within the online environment. Its main ambition is to offer an interdisciplinary body of scholarly knowledge on fake news, disinformation and propaganda
...
in relation to today's journalism, social development, political situation and cultural affairs happening all around the world." (Publisher description)
more
"Do emotions we experience after reading headlines help us discern true from false information or cloud our judgement? Understanding whether emotions are associated with distinguishing truth from fiction and sharing information has implications for interventions designed to curb the spread of misinf
...
ormation. Among 1,341 Facebook users in Nigeria, we find that emotions—specifically happiness and surprise—are associated with greater belief in and sharing of false, relative to true, COVID-19 headlines. Respondents who are older are more reflective, and do not support the ruling party are better at discerning true from false COVID-19 information."
more
"Digital technology, while an important enabler of many COVID-19 mitigation measures, has also contributed to the rise of misinformation and disinformation surrounding the pandemic. The circulation of rumours, conspiracy theories, false claims and misconceptions about the novel coronavirus has had a
...
pronounced impact on the world. Leveraging digital tools to facilitate access to reliable (and potentially life-saving) information and reduce exposure to misinformation and disinformation is a new skill that policy makers and communities at large need to master in the context of the events of the past two years.
Some efforts have been successful, while others have faced challenges and stalled. While the situation remains globally fluid and continues to evolve, it is possible to conclude that there is a wealth of innovative applications of ICT for infodemic management. The choice, design and implementation of any given solution or strategy need to be supported through a number of steps that should be coordinated and comprehensive in scope." (Conclusion, page 60)
more
"China has used Covid to benefit its global image through the activation of existing media dissemination channels overseas and the use of new tactics such as disinformation and misinformation. China’s largescale medical diplomacy campaign has also provided propaganda wins in many developing countr
...
ies, burnishing Beijing’s image as a reliable partner. Anecdotal reports indicate that Beijing has stepped up its content offerings, in particular by tailoring content including disinformation for specific countries and translating state-run messages into local languages. In some countries, China was also seen as the purveyor of the most accurate information about the new coronavirus, showing its growing influence over global narratives. For Beijing, Covid diplomacy clearly offers another means through which it can exert its influence. This research shows that countries that are recipients of China’s Covid vaccine clearly have more positive coverage of China, but it cannot draw conclusions as to the factors behind that. This strategy has largely been acceptable to global journalists, who — judging by the results of our focus groups in three separate countries — do not perceive China’s advances as a threat at a national level. Such views are in part due to the incremental nature of the changes, the clumsiness of China’s propaganda effort and the irrelevance of much of the material provided to local audiences. However, the survey does reveal that when viewed globally, there does appear to be more concern about China’s influence, in particular in the Asia Pacific region. The survey indicates that the overall impact of Beijing’s outreach is a redrawing of the global media landscape — one story at a time, one country at a time — shifting the China coverage in a more positive direction. China is using a multi-pronged approach to redraw the information landscape to benefit its own global image. In 2020, Beijing effectively shut down journalistic access to China, through visa denials and freezes, partly driven by international border closures. This had the effect of creating a vacuum in China coverage, creating a demand for stories from China, which could then be filled with statesponsored content already available through content-sharing agreements." (Conclusions, page 7)
more
"The five research streams are listed below. For each stream, three top research questions were identified, resulting in a list of 15 top priority research questions for the public health research agenda for infodemic management. Further, we listed for each subcategory a second tier of important res
...
earch questions, totalling 50 questions [...] Research stream 1: Measure and monitor the impact of infodemics during health emergencies [...] Research stream 2: Detect and understand the spread and impact of infodemics [...] Research stream 3: Respond and deploy interventions that protect against the infodemic and mitigate its harmful effects [...] Research stream 4: Evaluate infodemic interventions and strengthen the resilience of individuals and communities to infodemics [...] Research stream 5: Promote the development, adaptation and application of tools for managing infodemics ..." (Annex 1, page 19 ff.)
more
"Despite detailed policies on mis- and disinformation and promises to enforce them, social media platforms are failing to tackle prominent groups and individuals who spread false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines online. Using the World Doctors Alliance1 as a case study, a group that has spread var
...
ious problematic, false and conspiratorial claims about COVID-19 and vaccines, ISD found that 78% of the group’s 1.2 million online followers are found on mainstream platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok) who claim to prohibit this kind of content. The Facebook pages of World Doctors Alliance members have a following of over 550,000 users, which increased by 13,215% between January 2020 and July 2021. Videos posted by these Facebook pages have been viewed more than 21.1 million times. These pages have accumulated a total of 5.77 million interactions since January 2020, with interaction rates increasing by 85% in the first six months of 2021 compared to the previous six months. Facebook posts mentioning the World Doctors Alliance or its members have attracted more than three million engagements on Facebook and are present in at least 46 different languages on the platform. ISD found that large proportions—often the majority—of the most engaged with content on Facebook mentioning the World Doctors Alliance or its members in English, Spanish, German and Arabic contained false, misleading or conspiratorial claims related to COVID-19 and vaccines. Organisations that are part of Facebook’s fact-checking program have debunked false claims made by the World Doctors Alliance 189 times since the beginning of the pandemic. Despite this extensive fact-checking effort, Facebook is failing to take decisive action on the group or its members. Facebook’s fact-checking program incorporates organisations from 115 countries, but there appear to be major gaps in fact-checking in non-English languages. ISD found minimal application of fact-checking labels across the four languages analysed, with lower application rates on posts in German, Spanish and Arabic than in English. Content that does contain fact-checking labels is still accumulating tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of engagements." (Key findings)
more
"Building trust in public health authorities and epidemic response takes time and is an ongoing process. However, in the short term, mistrust can be mitigated by responding in contextually appropriate ways through meaningful community engagement: 1. Use social science to understand the socio-economi
...
c, political and historical context [...] 2. Adapt communications to respond to the concerns of different groupsof people, using trusted sources and platforms [...] 3. Establish dialogue and create feedback systems [...] 4. Include diverse groups and listen with an open mind [...] 5. Be transparent, consistent and open, particularly about uncertainty, controversy and mistakes [...] 6. Offer compelling narratives that build a sense of capability and motivation to act." (Pages 3-4)
more
"O presente relatório propôs, através de uma análise de transparência passiva e ativa, um diagnóstico quanto à transparência e a garantia do direito de acesso à informação pública de saúde, em período sensível de calamidade no Brasil - a pandemia do novo coronavírus. O contexto de in
...
fodemia somou-se aos crescentes entraves institucionais impostos pelo governo de Jair Bolsonaro, tornando quase impossível obter informações oficiais seguras, participar e monitorar as políticas públicas governamentais. Na pandemia de COVID-19, isso se ampliou e continua em curso, mais de um ano após, ainda que às custas de mais de 420 mil vidas perdidas. Muitos indícios denotam a intencionalidade das ações, como a afirmação recente de chefe da ANVISA17 sobre ter participado de reunião no Palácio do Planalto, em que se sugeriu modificar a bula da cloroquina para incluir possibilidade de seu uso contra a COVID-19, mesmo sendo este ato contrário a evidências científicas. Ainda que houvesse evidência contrária ao uso, houve ampla propaganda, pelo presidente da república, da cloroquina e de hidroxicloroquina como tratamentos para a infecção por coronavírus, levando a novas comorbidades. Se, por um lado, a importância do compartilhamento proativo de informações confiáveis e úteis para o eficiente enfrentamento à Covid-19 já tem sido reiterado por organizações nacionais e internacionais, a análise aqui presente mostra que as diversas formas de desinformação, incluindo o apagão de dados são, hoje, a regra no Brasil. O largo desrespeito aos prazos de resposta, a prorrogação indefinida para manifestações concernentes à pandemia e a banalização do sigilo18 são apenas uma parte pequena desses entraves - e não refletem a pressa que o contexto pandêmico exige sobre segurança acerca dos modos de prevenção, tratamento e contenção da doença. Para além disso, a propaganda massiva da desinformação vem sendo meio de afetação de milhares de pessoas no país que, possuindo menos acesso ao conhecimento científico produzido, confiam nas figuras de liderança que deveriam estar fazendo o papel de assegurar medidas de saúde. Foi possível constatar neste estudo um grave sintoma, face aos pedidos realizados. Da análise de amplitude de acesso, 75% dos pedidos tiveram retorno insuficiente." (Conclusões, página 41)
more
"This paper asks: How do fact-checkers combat/halt Covid-19 myths and misconceptions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic? How do they engage in social media networks toward sense-giving and sharing corrective information? It discusses two cases of online media projec
...
ts, ‘Congo Check’ and ‘Talato’, led by independent journalists that combine fact-checking skills when communicating the pandemic and attempt to engage civil society to better consume information. The data collection comprises of interviews with the journalists, as well as the Twitter handling of these projects. This study sheds light to how independent voluntary initiatives can foster the correction of Covid-19 myths and misconceptions in their localities." (Abstract)
more
"The study showed a changing pattern in the misconceptions and misinformation about COVID-19. Initially myths were largely on causes and vulnerability. It was widely speculated that black people had some immunity against COVID-19. Also, the condition was perceived to cause severe disease among the e
...
lderly. These misconceptions served as risk attenuators among Ghanaians, especially the younger generation. As the infection evolved in the country, another misconception emerged that the hot climate in Africa inhibited viral replication and transmission only to be followed by speculations and conjectures that COVID-19 was being used as a biological weapon to target developed economics. For the management of COVID-19, the use of local remedies such as Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) and herbal preparation also emerged. Myths about the efficacy of locally manufactured gin (akpeteshie) and hydroxychloroquine as prophylaxis led to abuse of such substances. Interview segments revealed the use of myths to propagate political agenda in the country. The study concludes that COVID-19 misconceptions and misinformation are widespread and cover the course of the condition. These myths necessitate culturally sensitive health communication strategies that take into account local perceptions of COVID-19 in order to tackle the circulation of misconceived messages about the pandemic in Ghana." (Abstract)
more
"COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has led to a global pandemic. The World Health Organization has also declared an infodemic (ie, a plethora of information regarding COVID-19 containing both false and accurate information circulated on the internet). Hence, it has become critical to test the veracity
...
of information shared online and analyze the evolution of discussed topics among citizens related to the pandemic. This research analyzes the public discourse on COVID-19. It characterizes risk communication patterns in four Asian countries with outbreaks at varying degrees of severity: South Korea, Iran, Vietnam, and India. We collected tweets on COVID-19 from four Asian countries in the early phase of the disease outbreak from January to March 2020. The data set was collected by relevant keywords in each language, as suggested by locals. We present a method to automatically extract a time-topic cohesive relationship in an unsupervised fashion based on natural language processing. The extracted topics were evaluated qualitatively based on their semantic meanings. This research found that each government's official phases of the epidemic were not well aligned with the degree of public attention represented by the daily tweet counts. Inspired by the issue-attention cycle theory, the presented natural language processing model can identify meaningful transition phases in the discussed topics among citizens. The analysis revealed an inverse relationship between the tweet count and topic diversity. This paper compares similarities and differences of pandemic-related social media discourse in Asian countries. We observed multiple prominent peaks in the daily tweet counts across all countries, indicating multiple issue-attention cycles. Our analysis identified which topics the public concentrated on; some of these topics were related to misinformation and hate speech. These findings and the ability to quickly identify key topics can empower global efforts to fight against an infodemic during a pandemic." (Abstract)
more
"This analysis examines the methods of disinformation being used to prove Russia's scientific lead, while portraying Western compet-itors in a very negative light. Sputnik V is an instrument of "soft power" through which Russia is trying to gain influence worldwide. In order to evaluate how successf
...
ul the Russian infor-mation policy was, this analysis examines the perception of the benefits of Sputnik V in six different countries. In early 2021, Kazakhstan’s and Serbia’s relations to Russia were positively affected. Similar opportunities would have existed for Germany and Slovakia, since both governments were very willing to cooperate with Russia. In the case of Germany, however, this opportunity was lost due to a lack of cooperation and transparency on Russia’s part. In Slovakia, the government crisis over the use of Sputnik V has had a detrimental effect. For France and Great Britain, neither an improvement of the epidemiological situation through the Russian vaccine nor a success of the overall Sputnik V campaign are expected. This analysis is based on 130 news reports from the Russian state-owned media RT and Sputnik, the international press and the Russian independent press." (Summary)
more
"A proliferation of a variety of health misinformation is present online, particularly during times of public health crisis. To combat online health misinformation, numerous studies have been conducted to taxonomize health misinformation or examine debunking strategies for various types of health mi
...
sinformation. However, one of the root causes – strategies in such misinformation that may persuade the readers – is rarely studied. This systematic review aimed to fill this gap. We searched Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Communication and Mass Media Complete for studies published between 2011 and 2021 on 29 May 2021. Peer-reviewed studies that discussed persuasive strategies in online misinformation messages were included. Of 1,700 articles identified, 58 were eligible and 258 persuasive strategies were extracted. Following the affinity diagraming process, 225 persuasive strategies in online health misinformation were categorized into 12 thematic groups, including: fabricating narrative with details, using anecdotes and personal experience as evidence, distrusting government or pharmaceutical companies, politicizing health issues, highlighting uncertainty and risk, inappropriate use of scientific evidence, rhetorical tricks, biased reasoning to make a conclusion, emotional appeals, distinctive linguistic features, and establishing legitimacy. Possible antecedents for why and how these persuasive strategies in online health misinformation may influence individuals were discussed. The findings suggest that media literacy education is essential for the public to combat health misinformation." (Abstract)
more
"The COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown have made community radio broadcasting more important than before. Using case studies and interviews, we explored the kind of programming adopted by selected community radio (CR) stations in India during the pandemic and how they fight fake news. We
...
also analyzed other issues they addressed during this period. We identified more dedicated programming services concerning COVID-19, fake news, and mental health using two-way communication by CR stations. The latter shared personalized and fact-checked information disseminated to the community. Issues related to rising domestic violence and mental health were also highlighted in their broadcast during the nationwide lockdown. Fake news percolated quickly in the communities where most members are illiterate and have little access to fact-checked information. CR stations indeed play a pivotal role in engaging the community in verifying fake news through personalized storytelling, using folk and traditional media, and engaging COVID-19 warriors from the community to authenticate the information." (Abstract)
more
"Conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and the subsequent development and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines are rampant across Arabic-language Facebook pages and groups. They are also linked to a larger network of anti-vaccination websites, Twitter accounts and YouTube channels across the web. Researchers f
...
rom the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) responsible for monitoring, tracking and analyzing COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook found connections to dominant COVID-19 vaccine misinformation narratives and influencers in the West, as well as region-specific tropes that are tied to the Middle East and North Africa’s geo-politics, and, in some instances, religious discourse on the apocalypse." (Executive summary)
more
"This report briefly examines the phenomenon of fake news in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Anglophone West Africa. It specifically addresses the following areas: fake news trends; how the phenomenon has impacted the work of the media and the fight against the pandemic; measures taken so fa
...
r (by government, media, development partners, others) to address the spread of the phenomenon; and recommendations on the way forward." (Page 1)
more