Mitigating infodemics: The relationship between news exposure and trust and belief in COVID-19 fake news and social media spreading.

<h4<Introduction</h4<Misinformation surrounding COVID-19 poses a global public health problem that adversely affects governments' abilities to mitigate the disease and causes accidental deaths and self-harm due to false beliefs about the virus, prevention measures, vaccines and cures. We aim to examine the relationship between exposure to and trust in COVID-19 news (from Television, social media, interpersonal communication) and information sources (healthcare experts, government, clerics) and belief in COVID-19 myths and false information, as well as critical verification practices before posting on social media.<h4<Methods</h4<We use a cross-sectional researcher-administered phone survey of adults living in Lebanon between March 27 and April 23, 2020.<h4<Results</h4<The sample included 56.1% men and 43.9% women, 37.9% with a university degree, 63.0% older than 30, and 7% with media literacy training. Those who trust COVID-19 news from social media [95%CI:(1.05-1.52)] and interpersonal communication [95%CI:(1.25-1.82)], and those who trust information from clerics [95%CI:(1.25-1.82)] were more likely to believe in COVID-19 myths and false information. University graduates [95%CI:(0.25-0.51)] and those who trust information from government [95%CI:(0.65-0.89] were less likely to believe in myths and false information. Those who believe in COVID-19 myths and false information [95%CI:(0.25-0.70)] were less likely to engage in critical social media posting practices. Only those who underwent media literacy training [95%CI:(1.24-6.55)] were more likely to engage in critical social media posting practices.<h4<Conclusion</h4<Higher education and trust in information from government contributed to decreasing belief in COVID-19 myths and false information. Trust in news from social media, interpersonal communication and clerics contributed to increasing belief in COVID-19 myths and false information, which in turn contributed to less critical social media posting practices, thereby exacerbated the infodemic. Media literacy training contributed to increasing critical social media posting practices, thereby played a role in mitigating the infodemic..

Medienart:	E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:	2021
Erschienen:	2021

Enthalten in:	Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:16
Enthalten in:	PLoS ONE - 16(2021), 6, p e0252830

Sprache:	Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:	Jad Melki [VerfasserIn] Hani Tamim [VerfasserIn] Dima Hadid [VerfasserIn] Maha Makki [VerfasserIn] Jana El Amine [VerfasserIn] Eveline Hitti [VerfasserIn]

Links:	doi.org [kostenfrei] doaj.org [kostenfrei] doi.org [kostenfrei] Journal toc [kostenfrei]

Themen:	Medicine Q R Science

doi:	10.1371/journal.pone.0252830

funding:
Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):	DOAJ005176514