An Examination of Construction of Health Misinformation about COV-2 (Coronavirus) on Face-book
Received: 01-Aug-2022 / Manuscript No. jcmhe-22-73418 / Editor assigned: 03-Aug-2022 / PreQC No. jcmhe-22-73418 (PQ) / Reviewed: 17-Aug-2022 / QC No. jcmhe-22-73418 / Revised: 22-Aug-2022 / Manuscript No. jcmhe-22-73418 (R) / Published Date: 29-Aug-2022
Abstract
Corona outbreak constitutes a major public health issue all over the world. The flow of information from the WHO (World Health Organization) has proven that over more than 4300 ensured cases have had acknowledged in 28 states. Therefore, the social media is becoming a more popular medium for data sharing source in the media study, But the social media platform has no limitations regarding the spread of unsolicited and unauthorized information about the health crises. Access to the internet and social media caused increasing confusion and great hype and fear about morbidity and mortality pattern of the Cov-2 wave. The main purpose of present study is what is the most common misinformation, the perception of misinformation and the implementation of misinformation concerning Cov-2 (Coronavirus) on the Pakistani newspaper’s official pages of face book. According to previous study, the scholar used the content analysis on misinformation about COVID-19 on social media. The present study will conclude through content analysis that, the flood of conspiracy theories about health care on social media can be potentially strict inference on health if provide logical scientific guidelines.
Keywords
Health news; Cov-2(Coronavirus); Social media; Pakistan
Introduction
Subjective of face-book pages
Face-book pages are Independent variable in my study. The purpose of present study is to examine the Face-book pages for sharing health related news [1]. This examination presumes that media didn't give sufficient wellbeing cautioning messages on COVID-19 preceding its spread to the nation [2]. The purpose of Selecting face-book pages is the availability of data regarding CoV2 (Corona Virus) health misinformation because facebook provides free hand platform to users for posting the information.
Misinformation on face-book
Although, the fake material, unconfirmed news about serious issues, this kind of all post helps to change the meaning of social media [3]. Access to internet and face-book caused increasing confusion and great hype and fear about morbidity and mortality pattern of disease [2].
Official face-book pages
I have selected well known news channel’s official face-book pages for present research. These face-book pages are “Hum News” and “Duniya News [3]. The selected posts were most liked and repost and hundreds of comments by the users in Pakistan. We have interoperated the data analysis for most reoccurring categories and themes on the selected sample of posts which has dialogical discussion of post.
COV-2 and face-book
Part of this is a spread of the flood of information on Face-book about COVID with no evidence to support the claims. Misinformation on Facebook has created mistrust in the time of COVID-19. Instead of taking precautions, people have started disbelieving on the treatment of COV-2 in Pakistan [3]. While, it is difficult to provide platform to people for trustworthy information, that has an ability of awareness about health information and response in the decent way of behaviours on Face-book.
Started misinformation on face-book
It is difficult to understand the difference between misinformation and awareness about public health news during pandemic and people constructs their own perceptions about circulating news [4]. The analysis designed to measure the quantity and construction of social media news about Cov-19 [5]. This study is to identify the different themes of Corona news and topics related corona virus that are generated by the users [5].
The particular distress is the probable spread of the COVID-19 through a lot of fake news and unproven reports about the disease to the people known as myths and misinformation on face-book [6]. The research will uncover the most well-known subjects with respect to Coronavirus falsehood are about fix and fear inspired notions.
It is difficult to provide platform to people for trustworthy information that has ability of awareness about health information and response in the decent way of behaviours. It is very important thing that awareness be shared without any fake means and false images
Conspiracy theories and fake news
This kind of conspiracies are excited in COVID-19 wave-I but somehow is moving again in wave-II like, herbal treatment and Coronavirus treatment in drinking hot water. Whereas, media initially focused mainly on creating awareness about increasing number of cases and mortality figures creating mental health issues worldwide.
The COVID-19 pandemic has not just caused critical difficulties for health frameworks everywhere on the globe yet additionally filled the flood of various gossipy titbits, scams, and falsehood, with respect to the aetiology, results, anticipation, and cure of the illness [7].
There are some conspiracies theories have confined relating the expansion of Cov-2 medicine or Vaccine. A conspiracy theory hypothesized that a vaccine had now been made-up and the cov-2 is a try to promote vaccine sale. The another conspiracy theory developed and circulating in facebook pages that purpose of spreading virus is a scheme of population control.
People attraction towards false news
Media initially focused mainly on creating awareness about increasing number of cases and mortality figures creating mental health issues worldwide. Access to internet and social media caused increasing confusion and great hype and fear about morbidity and mortality pattern of the disease. Fear of self-infection, large number of deaths, peer pressure, lack of personal protective equipment took its toll on mental health care providers in Pakistan [7].
It is common to observe discussion of fun, fear, misrepresentation of serious issues and blame game along with misinformation on social media. The previous study argues that the social media has no restrictions about the factual information during pandemic and flood of misinformation can be distrusting the public from actual issues [8].
Thus, the level of trust of health news on face-book pages toward public is necessary to bond with health information crisis during pandemic. The conspiracy theories about Cov-2 and misinformation can escort to suspect with health news reports and face-book pages that can smash public seeking behaviour about pandemic. Present study concluded that, the flood of conspiracy theories about health care on face-book can be potentially strict inference on health if provide logical scientific guidelines through social media platform.
Relationship between independent and dependent variable
The social media is becoming more popular medium for data sharing source in the media study [8]. While, the positive use of social media is to inform people in society is still a big question for the whole world [9]. Although, the fake material, unconfirmed news about serious issues, these kind of all post helps to change the meaning of social media [8]. No doubt, social media sites have performed associate degree crucial perform in spreading records and cognizance more or less flavouring failures and health care crises. However, the social media platform has no boundaries regarding unfold of uninvited and unauthorized records approximately the health crises [10].
A study of Camron, et al. (2015) on social media like face book, twitter and you-tube promote the policies and spread awareness of current issues in society that makes people to knowledgeable about environment. There is an election related news are very complex to measure the predicted results but the electoral pole on face-book is very helpful to predict the future results [11]. An article shed the light on another side that the media focused mainly on creating awareness about mental health issues worldwide.
But it is very important thing that awareness be shared without any fake means and false images [12]. Certain media directs in their reports on this pandemic have utilized headlines, for example, Chinese virus pandemonium, innately tying COVID-19 to race [12]. The capacity of people to recognize among truth and false reduces. It has brought about certain individuals settling on life-finishing choices dependent on their presentation to fake news [13].
Throughout the most recent decade, social media has assumed an essential function in spreading latest news and information about general health [14] while, some countries has impactful behaviour towards control on circulated misinformation where they work with social media organizations to removed fake news and political ads and misinformation about the critical situations [12].
Although, India has worth control on social media sites, due to this matter the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated the report on social media companies that to immobilize and remove the fake material about COVID-19 from face-book, Twitter, share-chat and what’s-app while, another side the author contribute his study on China has played his impressive role to control the rumours and fake news circulation on social media. The news services like “Wiebo” and “wechat” as main trustworthy news platform for Chinese are used to give authentic news during COVID-19 crisis period [15].
Ahinkorah (2020) an article on the COVID-19 pandemic has not just caused critical difficulties for health frameworks everywhere on the globe yet additionally filled the flood of various gossipy titbits, scams, and falsehood, with respect to the aetiology, results, anticipation, and cure of the illness. Motta et al (2020) shed the light on fake news which has been doing adjusts behind the pandemic, particularly in the right-inclining US media. Thus, the research gap describes the conspiracy theories and stigma about COVID-19 which was circulated on US media.
According to Rodrigues (2020) In June 2017, the first cyber-security Law and many regulations was introduced in China for social media services like information share in groups, reposting and live coverage services have worked with legal and authentic grounds for power of social media rumours which through the trustworthy news has been shared on China’s social networks. Xinhuanet.com (2019) while in Pakistan social media is giving false information about COVID-2 (Coronavirus) like vaccine is ready to cure the virus and didn’t use enough strategies to control misinformation on social networks.
According to previous study, the scholar conducted the content analysis and designed comparative study on misinformation about COVID-19 to used different social media platforms like whatsapp, youtube, face-book, twitter and other social networks. Therefore, the selecting face-book for the present study is the availability of data regarding cov2 (corona virus) health misinformation because face-book provide free hand platform to users for posting the information. This study designed critical discourse study on strategies to use control on misinformation circulation about COVID-19 wave-2 on face-book in Pakistan.
Research Methodology
Table 1: The study includes main topics, relevant to misinformation
Categories of news: The topic is analyzed under three categories; Altruism, Information sharing and Socialization [8] (Table 2).
| Categories of news | |
|---|---|
| Altruism and misinformation | If the issue is discussed in a way that the news is disseminated on social media platforms in order to promote social cohesiveness by the post maker views. |
| Misinformation ing for Entertainment | If the issue is discussed in a way the false stories are spread more for instructive purposes than for entertainment. The millions of pieces of information about COVID-19 currently available on social media, people are more likely to share false information if they do not verify properly. |
| Socialization and misinformation | If the issue is discussed to generally create awareness campaigns on covid-19 treatment and to highlight the forthcoming misinformation problems. |
Table 2: Categories of News
Thematic themes: Thematic frames from previous studies were used to conduct the content analysis. The thematic frames formed by Rafi, 2020 misinformation about COVID-19 wave-II research are merged to form the current study's thematic frames. In order to contribute something new to the current study, these were not exactly replicated from previous research (Table 3).
| Thematic Frames | |
|---|---|
| Health protective Misinformation | This thematic frame focuses on the health protective news to provide solution for treatment. |
| Perception about Misinformation | This thematic frame focuses on the perception, effects of misinformation and provided warnings and appealing news about health on face book. |
| Implementation of Misinformation | This thematic frame includes issues on implementation of misinformation discussed with scientific background. It also focuses on the perception of misinformation, that is imparted to the people, they can be get concerned and counter to the news in different. |
Table 3: Thematic frames from previous studies.
Comparison: Throughout the analysis, comparison would be made between selected face book pages on the basis on misinformation, main topics, categories of news, and thematic frames.
Content analysis
The present study is conducted analysis in tabular form. In all the tables, “posts” refers to the face-book pages selected as unit of analysis of the study
Number of posts
See Tables 4-9
| Face-book pages | No. of posts | % of posts |
|---|---|---|
| Express News | 142 | 46.90% |
| Dunya News | 161 | 53.10% |
Table 4: Number of posts on pages posted on selected face-book pages
| Face-book pages | January | February | March | April | May | June |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express News | 32 | 24 | 27 | 20 | 24 | 15 |
| Dunya News | 28 | 39 | 31 | 24 | 21 | 18 |
Table 5: Distribution of months about Covid-19 misinformation posts on face-book Selected face-book Pages
| Main topic of Express News | Posts | Altruism and misinformation | misinformation Sharing for Entertainment | Socialization and misinformation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| Rumors | 17 | 12% | 9 | 53% | 5 | 29.40% | 3 | 17.60% |
| Stigmas | 4 | 2.80% | 3 | 75% | 1 | 25% | 0 | 0% |
| Conspiracy Theory | 11 | 7.70% | 8 | 72.70% | 2 | 18.20% | 1 | 9.10% |
| Fake news | 42 | 29.60% | 33 | 78.60% | 5 | 12% | 4 | 9.50% |
| Health awareness news | 21 | 14.80% | 12 | 57.10% | 8 | 38.10% | 1 | 4.80% |
| Fear & Worry | 45 | 31.70% | 22 | 48.90% | 13 | 100% | 10 | 22.20% |
| Others | 2 | 1.40% | 0 | 0% | 2 | 100% | 0 | 0% |
| Total | 142 | 100% | 87 | 61.30% | 36 | 25.30% | 19 | 13.40% |
Table 6: Main topics of Express News
| Categories of News face-book pages | Total No. of posts | Altruism and misinformation | misinformation Sharing for Entertainment | Socialization and misinformation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | ||
| Express News | 142 | 87 | 61.30% | 36 | 25.30% | 19 | 13.40% |
| Dunya News | 161 | 81 | 50.30% | 58 | 36.00% | 22 | 13.70% |
Table 7: Comparison of categories of news about covid-19 misinformation posts on the face-book pages posted on Express News and Dunya News.
| Categories news face-book pages | Rumors | Stigma | Conspiracy theories | Fake News | Health awareness News | Fear & worry | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express News | 12% | 2.80% | 7.70% | 29.60% | 14.80% | 31.70% | 1.40% |
| Dunya News | 13% | 5% | 17.40% | 28.60% | 11.80% | 21.10% | 3.10% |
Table 8: Comparison of main topic of covid-19 misinformation posts on the face-book pages posted on Express News and Dunya News.
| Thematic Frames | Express News | Dunya News |
|---|---|---|
| Health Misinformation | 62 (43.7%) | 77 (47.8%) |
| Perception of misinformation | 43 (30.3%) | 51 (31.7%) |
| Implementation of Misinformation | 37 (26%) | 33 (20.5%) |
Table 9: Comparison between selected face-book pages on the bases of thematic frames about covid-19 misinformation posts on pages of Express News and Dunya news.
Results
According to the Table 4 of present study Express News face-book page has posted (46.9%) news about COVID-19 and (53.1%) news posted on Duniya News. The ratio of data is concluded from the selected total number of sample while, the Duniya News has posted greater number of posts about the COVID-19 health news.
Therefore, the Table 6 represent to posts of COVID-19 news from January 2021 to June 2021. The number of posts shows that the most of posts were posted of face-book pages. As the Table 2 shows that the Express News has mostly posted fear and worry (31.7%). Fake news (29.6%) are the second largest number of posts on Express news, while Rumours was 12%, stigmas posts were posted (2.8%) and (7.7%) posts was represented to conspiracy theories. Thus, the health awareness news about COVID-19 was posted about (14.8%) and the other kind of news about COVID-19 was (1.4%) only. The categories of news about COVID-19 in Express News face-book page was “Altruism and misinformation” (61.3%), “Entertainment and misinformation” (25.3%) and “Socialization and misinformation” (13.4%).
As the Table 7 shows that the Dunya News has mostly posted fake news (28.6%). Fear and worry (21.1%) are the second largest number of posts on Express news, while Rumours was 13%, stigmas posts were posted (5%) and (17.4%) posts was represented to conspiracy theories. Thus, the health awareness news about COVID-19 was posted about (11.8%) and the other kind of news about COVID-19 was (3.1%). The categories of news about COVID-19 in Dunya News face-book page was “Altruism and misinformation” (50.3%), “Entertainment and misinformation” (36%) and “Socialization and misinformation” (13.7%).
The Table 8 represents the comparison between the categories of news about COVID-19 that, the express news has covered the “Altruism and misinformation” (61.3%), while the Dunya news face-book page has covered “Altruism and misinformation” (50.3%), so the Express news has most of the news of Altruism. Thus, the comparison of Misinformation sharing and Entertainment that the Express News has (25.3%) and Dunya news has 36%, while in this phase the Dunya News has most of news on entertainment and most of “socialization and misinformation” news has Dunya news (13.7%), while, the Express news (13.4%) is approximately near by the Dunya News.
Table 8 shows that the health awareness news has been posted in Express News (14.8%) most of the time and Dunya News (11.8%). Fake news is posted on express News page (29.6%) and Dunya News (28.6%) has approximately close to Express News, while, the conspiracy theories has reported on Dunya news (17.4) and Express News page (7.7%).
According to Table 9 has comparison between thematic frames represents that the “health misinformation” about COVID-19 is the most highlighted frame in this whole Table 9. The Express News page (43.7%) was show that the health misinformation as the Dunya News page (47.8%) and then the perception of misinformation related news was reported on Express news page (30.3%) and Dunya News page (31.7%), while, the implementation of misinformation shows that Express news page (26%) has mostly represented to it than the Dunya News (20.5%).
Discussion of Dependent Variable
Flow of health information during pandemic
AS of 11th of February this year (2020), flow of information from the WHO (World Health Organization) has proven that over more than forty-three thousand ensured cases have been acknowledge in twentyeight states. On 30th of January 2020, COVID-19 was declared and verified as sixth open health crisis of world-wide issue by the WHO [4].
After the development of the narrative COVID-19 sickness 2019 (COVID-19), deluding gossipy titbits and fearful notions about the inception flowed the globe combined with manipulation through scare tactics and bigotry, all firmly connected to the new “dis-info-damic” environments of the 21st century set apart by social media (International Society of Travel Medicine, 2020).
The COVID-19 pandemic has not just caused critical difficulties for health frameworks everywhere on the globe. Misinformation has created mistrust in society in the time of COVID-19. Instead of taking precautions, people have started disbelieving and opposing the lockdown in Pakistan [4].
Conclusion
Face-book is playing an essential role in spreading information and awareness about natural disasters and healthcare crises. However, the face-book pages, i.e. Express News and dunya News were analyzed in present study that they have no limitations regarding the spread of misinformation about the health crises. Therefore, the conspiracies are excited in Corona-19 wave-I but somehow is moving again in wave-II and wave-III like, corona treatment and Coronavirus vaccine. Whereas, both face-book news pages initially focused mainly on creating awareness about increasing number of cases and mortality figures creating mental health issues worldwide. While, it is difficult to they provide platform to people for trustworthy information that has ability of awareness about health information and response in the decent way of behaviours.
The issue of fear and worry was the most highlighted issue in the Express News and Conspiracy theories issue was mostly reported in Dunya news according to the selected time period for the presnt research. Moreover, mostly health information provides on Express News time to time through face-book page then the Dunya News but the presence of fake news about health news were approximately close each other through which people baffled about to accept the real or fake news. Whereas, Dunya News page has posted most of conspiracy theories about Cov-2 and misinformation were attended to believe that face-book page smash public seeking behaviour about pandemic. Present study concluded that, the flood of conspiracy theories about health care on face-book can be potentially strict inference on health if provide logical scientific guidelines.
Acknowledgment
None.
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
References
- Mertens G, Gerritsen L, Duijndam S, Salemink E, Engelhard IM (2020) Fear of the coronavirus (COVID-19): Predictors in an online study conducted in March 2020. J Anxiety Disord. 74:102258.
- Pei X, Mehta D (2020) # Coronavirus or# Chinesevirus?!: Understanding the negative sentiment reflected in Tweets with racist hashtags across the development of COVID-19.arXiv.
- Tess PA (2013) The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual): A literature review. Computers in human behaviour. 29(5): A60-A68.
- Van der Linden S, Roozenbeek J, Compton J (2020) Inoculating against fake news about COVID-19. Front Psychol.
- Czarniawska B (2011) Cyberfactories: How news agencies produce news. Northampton,UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. p 29.
- Czarniawska B (2011) ANSA, or meetings and team work. In B. Czarniawska, Cyberfactories: How news agencies produce news. Northampton,UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. p 78.
- Rafi MS (2020) Dialogic content analysis of misinformation about COVID-19 on social media in Pakistan. Linguistics and Literature Review. 6(2):131-143.
- Rodrigues UM, Xu J (2020) Regulation of COVID-19 fake news infodemic in China and India. Media International Australia. 177(1):125-131.
- Islam MS, Sarkar T, Khan SH, Kamal AHM, Hasan SM, Kabir A, Chughtai AA (2020) COVID-19–related infodemic and its impact on public health: A global social media analysis. The American J Trop Medi and Hyg. 103(4):1621-1629.
- Gever VC, Ezeah G (2020) The media and health education: Did Nigerian media provide sufficient warning messages on corona-virus disease?. Health Education Research. 35(5):460-470
- Apuke OD, Omar B (2020) Fake news and COVID-19: modelling the predictors of fake news sharing among social media users.Science Direct. 56: 101475.
- Ahinkorah BO, Ameyaw EK, Hagan JE Jr, Seidu AA, Schack T (2020) Rising above misinformation or fake news in Africa: Another strategy to control COVID-19 spread. Front. Commun Sec. Health Communication.
- Kadam AB, Atre SR (2020) Negative impact of social media panic during the COVID-19 outbreak in India. J Travel Medicine. 27(3)
- Lazer DM, Baum MA, Benkler Y, Berinsky AJ, Greenhill KM, Menczer F, Metzger MJ, Nyhan B, Pennycook G, Rothschild D, Schudson M (2018) The science of fake news. Science (New York, NY). 359(6380): 1094-1096.
- Chen ZF, Cheng Y (2019) Consumer response to fake news about brands on social media: The effects of self-efficacy, media trust, and persuasion knowledge on brand trust. J Prod & Brand Manag.29(2):188-198.
- Ahmad I, Yousaf M, Yousaf S, Ahmad MO (2020) Fake news detection using machine learning ensemble methods. Complexity.
- Kvetanová Z, Predmerská AK, Švecová M (2020) Debunking as a method of uncovering disinformation and fake news in fake news is bad news-hoaxes, half-truths and the nature of today's journalism. IntechOpen.
Citation: Naz M (2022) An Examination of Construction of Health Misinformation about COV-2 (Coronavirus) on Face-book. J Community Med Health Educ 12:772.
Copyright: © 2022 Naz M. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
