Contrasting Misinformation and Real-Information Dissemination Network Structures on Social Media During a Health Emergency*

Original English article published in the American Journal of Public Health: https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305854

Objectives.

To provide a comprehensive workflow to identify top influential health misinformation about Zika on Twitter in 2016, reconstruct information dissemination networks of retweeting, contrast mis- from real information on various metrics, and investigate how Zika misinformation proliferated on social media during the Zika epidemic.

Infodemics and infodemiology: a short history, a long future

An “infodemic” is defined as “an overabundance of information – some accurate and some not – occurring during an epidemic”. This paper describes the characteristics of an infodemic, which combines an inordinately high volume of information (leading to problems relating to locating the information, storage capacity, ensuring quality, visibility and validity) and rapid output (making it hard to assess its value, manage the gatekeeping process, apply results, track its history, and leading to a waste of effort).

Evolution and impact of the infodemic on the child population in times of COVID-19

The provision of timely, clear, correct information is an important strategy for controlling panic and containing a pandemic outbreak. However, as this task has not been prioritized in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a new lethal enemy has emerged that now poses another crisis, namely, the "infodemic", with consequences that have affected the entire population worldwide.

Latest articles