COVID‐19 Infodemic: A study on the Fragile Five countries

• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Merve Boyacı Yıldırım
• Date: 01 February 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2846

RESEARCH ARTICLE

COVID-19 Infodemic: A study on the Fragile Five countries

Merve BoyacıYıldırım

Department of Public Relations and Publicity,

Faculty of Economics, Administrative and

Social Sciences, Istanbul Gelisim University,

Istanbul, Turkey

Correspondence

Merve BoyacıYıldırım, Department of Public

Relations and Publicity, Faculty of Economics,

Administrative and Social Sciences, Istanbul

Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Email: mboyaci@gelisim.edu.tr

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many rumors and conspiracy theories spread in var-

ious media outlets. The purpose of this study is to reveal the nature of the misinfor-

mation detected by fact check platforms that spread in the Fragile Five countries. To

determine the themes of misinformation about COVID-19 and from which media it is

disseminated are a possible way to prevent it. The data of the study were obtained

from International Fact-checking Network's CoronaVirusFacts database. One thou-

sand seven hundred thirty-four piece of misinformation collected by web scraping

method during the period January 24, 2020 to November 14, 2020 and analyzed

with MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020. As a result of the research, it was found that

rumors (96.3%) spread more in the Fragile Five countries than conspiracy theories

(3.7%). While the main theme of the rumors is about illness (26.9%) and diagnosis-

treatment (25%), conspiracy theories are mostly related to the cause of the disease

(68.8%). 53.06% of misinformation was spread through the Facebook platform.

15.32% on Twitter; 13.34% on WhatsApp. Misinformation has been heavily false

(85.12%) in both rumor and conspiracy theories. In the second place, misleading

(10.09%) news spread.

KEYWORDS

COVID-19, fact-check, infodemic, misinformation, social media

1|INTRODUCTION

Throughout history, pandemics have had significant impacts on the

world population (Yildirim et al., 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic is a

health crisis that affects the whole world (Ning et al., 2020). In today's

world, in which we experience the age of information, it is impossible

to reach the speed and density of communication networks (Akova &

Kantar, 2021). In addition to conventional media tools, the fact that

social media environments have a large place in our lives with techno-

logical developments cause news and information related to the

COVID-19 pandemic to spread very quickly in these social networks

and cause information pollution. Misinformation can be defined as

“any claim of fact that is currently false due to lack of scientific evi-

dence”(Chou et al., 2018). An infodemic can be defined as the rapid

spread of information of all kinds, including rumors, gossip, and unreli-

able information. They are spread instantly and internationally

through the growing popular use of mobile phones, social media, the

internet, and other communication technologies (WHO, 2018). It

includes attempts to deliberately disseminate misinformation to

weaken the public health response and develop alternative agendas

of groups or individuals. Misinformation and disinformation can be

harmful to people's physical and mental health; increase stigma;

threatening valuable health gains; and by leading to inadequate adher-

ence to public health measures, it reduces the effectiveness of these

measures and jeopardizes the ability of countries to contain the pan-

demic (WHO, 2020). The rapid spread of COVID-19 misinformation in

both online and offline media causes the fight against infodemic to

gain importance.

The rapidly changing situation warrants concerted efforts from

governments around the globe (Chen et al., 2020). Public health emer-

gencies can be expressed as fearful and stressful times for people and

communities(CDC, 2020; Person et al.,2004). In this uncertain environ-

ment, managingrumors, eliminating misinformation and conspiracy the-

ories is essential for containing the pandemic. International health

institutions, including the World Health Organization declaring rumors

and conspiracy theories as emerging threatsto pandemic preparedness

Received: 24 August 2021 Revised: 8 January 2022 Accepted: 12 October 2022

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2846

J Public Affairs. 2023;23:e2846. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of13

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2846