Pandemic Causes Viral Spread of ‘Fake News’

Academic Case Study by Georgia Bennett-Murphy (as part of 'Popular Culture' Contextual Study elective, RMIT University)

Five years ago, the term “fake news” was far from a well-known expression. Now, it’s part of the daily discourse surrounding the news, with journalists needing to ‘fact-check’ material more than ever before. The Coronavirus pandemic has dominated the media landscape throughout 2020, both within Australia and abroad. However “alongside the increased attention on the pandemic, has come the viral spread of COVID-19 fake news online.” (Nyilasy, G.) Australian crisis communication expert, Adam Dunn, went so far as to say “the flood of fake news about COVID-19 is greater than all the fake news he's witnessed before it combined, and has potentially fatal consequences.”

When discussing ‘fake news’ it is important to distinguish between “misinformation” and “disinformation”. While their definitions are often debated, ‘misinformation’ can be simply defined as ‘false, mistaken, or misleading information, whereas “disinformation” entails the distribution, or dissemination of false, mistaken, or misleading information in an intentional, deliberate, or purposeful effort to mislead, deceive, or confuse.” (Fetzer, 2003).

This case study will explore mis/disinformation during the COVID19 pandemic, including how social media has allowed for its diffusion. It will also more broadly discuss potentially detrimental effects ‘fake news’ can have on public safety, the psychology behind why some believe, and even thrive, on conspiracy, and how ‘fake news’ relates to the sociological concept of ‘moral panic’.

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According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the COVID-19 related ‘infodemic’ is ‘just as dangerous as the virus itself.’ With this statement the WHO are primarily referring to the plethora of ‘false preventative measures’ being shared across social media - ‘eating garlic, drinking warm water with lemon slices …drinking bleach and disinfectant … may increase your immunity to the virus.’ All of these measures have been proven false in directly preventing the virus.

Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans made headlines earlier this year with social media posts directing followers to his “BioCharger” product - a "hybrid subtle energy revitalisation platform" with a $14,990 price tag. It claimed to “improve potential health, wellness and athletic performance”. Evans stated in a Facebook Live video that the device is "programmed with a thousand different recipes and there's a couple in there for the Wuhan Coronavirus.” Evans was eventually fined $25,000AUD by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, as there was “no apparent foundation" for these claims.

This incident is a good example of why influencers and celebrities with significant followings should be very careful with what they share during the pandemic. As Dr Harry Nespolon, president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said on SBS in a report on Coronavirus and false information: “If you’ve got a celebrity that you’ve watched daily for years, you believe that they will tell you the truth.” “A lot of celebrities are not experts in healthcare. They are promoting what are, in my view, very dangerous ideas ... some of these could actually end up with people dying because they’ve followed that advice.”

However it’s not just false information surrounding COVID19 remedies that is posing a risk to society - conspiracy theories such as blaming 5G cell towers for spreading the disease, or accusing businessman Bill Gates of causing the pandemic to sell us a vaccine, have consequences that go beyond public health.

Notable coronavirus conspiracy theories circulating on social media include claims the ‘mainstream media is using “code words” during COVID19’ - e.g “ ‘Self Quarantined’ = under house arrest either under Federal agent guards or ankle bracelet” and “ ‘Tested positive for CV = they confessed … their execution will be out of the public eye … it will be portrayed as a suicide or some sort of accidental death.”’

Additionally, the “Wake Up Australia – Millions March”, held in May 2020 and organised on Facebook Events, attracted hundreds of protestors rallying against 5G and vaccinations. Individuals at Melbourne’s Royal Botanical Gardens held signs and placards; “COVID19 is a Scam” and “Kill Bill (Gates).”

These examples are barely the tip of the COVID19 conspiracy-theory-iceberg!

Researchers and psychologists have worked for years to establish why a proportion of society believe, and even thrive, on conspiracy theories. The Harvard Kennedy School’s “Misinformation Review (COVID19)” states that research found the “psychological predisposition to reject expert, authoritative information (denialism), the tendency to view major social and political events as the product of conspiracies (conspiracy thinking), and partisan motivations are the strongest explanatory factors behind COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs.”

This lends credence to propositions that individuals with such tendencies often search for a “higher evil” during confusing or difficult times, and in the process, refuse to acknowledge any reasonable, informed nor logical explanation for the event in question. The damage caused by their conspiracy theories can spread beyond such individuals - a prime example being when parents with “anti-vaxxer” ideals place their children in harm’s way through their belief in an unsubstantiated theory.

HOW ORGANISATIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ARE ADDRESSING THE SPREAD OF FAKE NEWS DURING THE PANDEMIC

In the same study conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School, researchers pointed to prevention of the spread of misinformation as the best way to eliminate dangerous conspiracies. “We might aim to limit the spread of, or exposure to, misinformation and conspiracy theories in the first place … these strategies take the perspective that our efforts should be as focused on prevention as they are on treatment, and recent efforts in this vein have proven successful despite legal and practical complications with impeding the communication of certain types of ideas” (Roozenbeek, van der Linden, Nygren).

Social media platforms and organisations are taking steps to slow the circulation of false information through the implementation of preventive measures. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are now providing links to reputable sources for COVID19 information, in a largely unprecedented endeavour to slow the spread of ‘fake news’ on social media. While this has failed to stop the dissemination of false news on their platforms, as exemplified by the widespread conspiracies discussed above, it at least encourages people to consider a more accurate source of information.

Workplaces and organisations are also trying to educate employees and consumers about mis/disinformation during the current climate. Notably, UNESCO produced a brochure entitled “How to Spot Fake News”, which walks the reader through fact-checking measures used by journalists, such as “considering the source/author/date”, “checking if your own beliefs may affect your judgement”, as well as encouraging wider reading and searching for supporting sources from credible media outlets. Organisations such as RMIT-ABC Fact Check and Snopes (www.snopes.com) also release reports, including on their social channels, on select topical issues, providing a statement and/or credibility ‘rating’ for each piece of ‘fake news.’ These systems are based off a number of fact checking measures, including reverse-image Google search and source tracing.

'MORAL PANIC' & FALSE INFORMATION

It is possible to discuss the public reaction to ‘fake news’ through the lens of sociological concept, ‘moral panic’. Stanley Cohen states that moral panic happens when "a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests”. Moral panic is often said to be propagated through the mainstream or mass media, even if they’re not actively participating in ‘sensationalism … simply reporting the facts can be enough to generate concern, anxiety, or panic.” (Cohen, S.).

However, in the case of ‘fake news’, this fear is “not so much directed toward a particular group but aimed at the larger transformation of informational spaces made possible by social media” (Carlson, M.) In an analysis for the Cato Institute, Milton Mueller wrote about social media’s “hyper-transparent” nature - meaning, how social media platforms allow for human interactions to be almost completely transparent, arguably leads to the displacement of responsibility for societal acts from the perpetrators onto the platform that makes them visible.” (Mueller, M.) Mueller says that “this hyper-transparency is fostering a moral panic around social media. Online platforms, like earlier new media technologies such as TV and radio, now stand accused of a stunning array of evils: addiction, fostering terrorism and extremism … the destruction of democracy. The social‐psychological dynamics of hyper-transparency lend themselves to the conclusion that social media cause the problems they reveal and that society would be improved by regulating the intermediaries that facilitate unwanted activities …”. Put simply, Mueller argues there's a moral panic surrounding social media, and that some believe the platform causes the problem, rather than its users. This addresses the highly current debate as to whether social media sites should be accountable for the actions of their users, and if so, to what extent.

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The discussion above demonstrates how ‘fake news’ surrounding COVID19 can be considered a serious risk to public safety. It is arguably one of the most current and pressing examples of an issue within popular culture that can gravely impact society. ‘Fake news’ is something that will continue to cause problems until the public acknowledges its existence and equips itself with strategies to prevent its dissemination. If we want COVID19 mis/disinformation to stop, we need to actively, not passively, consume news about it. Blind acceptance can be dangerous - readers must learn to ask questions and above all, evaluate material before sharing it. As the world continues to fight the ‘invisible enemy’, we as a society, will need to work together to stop the viral and dangerous spread of the second invisible enemy - fake news.

Case Study Statement:

I’m currently in the final year of RMIT’s Bachelor of Comms (Journalism). I chose to focus on ‘fake news’ for my case study, as it’s something all journalists need to be aware of and know how to navigate in the modern media landscape. Fact-checking information is more important now than it’s ever been before, and the viral spread of COVID19 ‘fake news’ provided a good opportunity to further research fact-checking methods being employed by international organisations and news outlets, during what is arguably one of the most widespread ‘infodemics’ in history.

References

Cohen, S. 2011, ‘Whose Side are We On: The undeclared politics of moral panic theory’, Volume: 7 issue: 3, page(s): 237-243. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1741659011417603 Carlson, M 2020, 'Fake news as an informational moral panic: the symbolic deviancy of social media during the 2016 US presidential election', Information Communication and Society, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 374-388. Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1505934

Nyilasy, G., 2020, ‘Fake news in the age of COVID19’, University of Melbourne, Pursuit. Available at: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/fake-news-in-the-age-of-covid-19.

Uscinski, J.E., Enders, A.M., Klofstad, C., Seelig, M., Funchion, J., Everett, C., Wuchty, S., Premaratne, K. and Murthi, M. 2020. Why do people believe COVID-19 conspiracy theories? Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. Available at: https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/why-do-people-believe-covid-19-conspiracy-theories/

Mueller, M. 2019. ‘Challenging the Social Media Moral Panic: Preserving Free Expression under Hypertransparency.’ Cato Institute. Available at: https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/challenging-social-media-moral-panic-preserving-free-expression-under.

Karlova, N, 2018, ‘Misinformation and Disinformation in Online Games: An Explanatory Investigation of Possible Cues’, University of Washington (Information Science). Available at https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/42416/Karlova_washington_0250E_18480.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Cohen, S. 1973. ‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers.' Available at: https://infodocks.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/stanley_cohen_folk_devils_and_moral_panics.pdf

Mara, D. 2020, ’Coronavirus fake news is being fuelled by the top and bottom of society, says Australian expert’, SBS News [online]. Available at https://www.sbs.com.au/news/coronavirus-fake-news-is-being-fuelled-by-the-top-and-bottom-of-society-says-australian-expert