Disinformation, misinformation and fake news in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. A corpus-based approach

• Authors: Ewa Kusz

Abstracts

EN

The Covid-19 outbreak and its dissemination resulted in the creation of a new, specialised and global discourse among the population. This paper aims to investigate a tsunami of dis- and misinformation on the basis of selected, most frequently occurring, items of fake news to show how the ‘infodemic’ (Covid-19-related misinformation) has expanded, and how fake news is structured. The paper concludes by presenting patterns of fake news, including grammar structures, the frequency of the given lemmas and collocations, in the hope that it will provide greater transparency, help to flatten the ‘infodemic’ curve and make the readers more aware of how myths about coronavirus have been formed during the pandemic.

Keywords

EN

fake news; misinformation; disinformation; Covid-19; coronavirus; corpus-based approach; linguistic features

• Publisher: Instytut Germanistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego oraz Instytut Filologii Germańskiej Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego
• Journal: tekst i dyskurs - text und diskurs
• Year: 2021
• Issue: 15
• Pages: 211-229

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Ewa Kusz

References

• Allcott Hunt, Gentzkow, Matthew (2017): Social media and fake news in the 2016 election. Journal of Economic Perspectives 31 (2), 211–236. Google Scholar
• Antos Gerd (2019): Fake news. Dlaczego im ulegamy. Albo: „Urządzę wam świat tak, jak mi się podoba”. tekst i dyskurs – text und diskurs 12, 191-213. Accessed November 11, 2021. DOI: 10.7311/tid.12.2019.11 Google Scholar
• Apuke Oberiri Destiny, Omar Bahihay (2020): Fake news proliferation in Nigeria: Consequences, motivations, and prevention through awareness. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews 8 (2), 318–327. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2020.8236. Accessed November 18, 2020. Google Scholar
• Apuke Oberiri Destiny, Omar Bahihay (2020a): Fake news and COVID-19: modelling the predictors of fake news sharing among social media users. Telematics and Informatics [Article in press]. Accessed November 2, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2020.101475. Google Scholar
• Barua Zapan, Barua Sajib, Aktar Salma, Kabir Najma & Li Minzge (2020): Effects of misinformation on COVID-19 individual responses and recommendations for resilience of disastrous consequences of misinformation. Progress in Disaster Science 8 (2020) 100119. Accessed November 16, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pdisas.2020.100119. Google Scholar
• Bastick Zach (2020): Would you notice if fake news changed your behavior? An experiment on the unconscious effects of disinformation. Computers in Human Behavior. [Journal Pre-proof] Accessed November 22, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106633. Google Scholar
• Brennen J. Scott, Simon M. Felix, Howard N. Philip & Nielsen Rasmus Kleis (2020): Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation. Accessed November 20, 2020. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/types-sources-and-claims-covid-19-misinformation. Google Scholar
• Duffy Andrew, Tandoc Edson, Ling Rich (2019): Too good to be true, too good not to share: the social utility of fake news. Information Communication and Society 1–15. Accessed November 16, 2020. https:// doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1623904. Google Scholar
• Egelhofer Jana Lura, Lecheler Sophie (2019): Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: a framework and research agenda. Annals of the International Communication Association 43 (2), 97–116. Accessed November 20, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2019.1602782. Google Scholar
• Hou Zhiuan, Du Fanxing, Jiang Hao, Zhou Xinyu, Lin Lessa, Assessment, T., & Commission, N. H. (2020): Assessment of public attention, risk perception, emotional and behavioural responses to the COVID-19 outbreak: social media surveillance in China. medRxiv 2020.03.14.20035956. Accessed November 16, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.14.20035956 Google Scholar
• Howell Bethany (2020): Infodemic: The Rise of Fake News During COVID-19. Accessed November 16, 2020. https://tech.co/news/fake-news-covid-19. Google Scholar
• Huynh Duc Luu Toan (2020): The COVID-19 risk perception: A survey on socioeconomics and media attention. Economics Bulletin 40 (1), 758–764. Accessed November 16, 2020. https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-20-00175.html. Google Scholar
• Islam A. K. M. Najmul, Laato Samuli, Talukder Shamim, Sutinen Erkki (2020): Misinformation sharing and social media fatigue during COVID-19: An affordance and cognitive load perspective. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 159 (2020) 120201. Accessed November 20, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120201. Google Scholar
• Kaminska Izabella (2017): A module in fake news from the info-wars of ancient Rome. Financial Times. Accessed November 16, 2020. https://www.ft.com/content/aaf2bb08-dca2-11e6-86ac-f253db7791c Google Scholar
• Ku Y. L. Kelly, Kong Qiuyi, Song Yunya, Deng Lipeng, Kang Yi, Hu Aihua (2019): What predicts adolescents’ critical thinking about real-life news? The roles of social media news consumption and news media literacy. Thinking Skills and Creativity 33, 100570. Accessed on November 18, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2019.05.004. Google Scholar
• Lampos Vasileios, Maimuna S. Majumder, Elad Yom-Tov, Michael Edelstein, Simon Moura, Yohhei Hamada, Molebogeng X. Rangaka, Rachel A. McKendry, Ingemar J. Cox (2020): Tracking COVID-19 using online search. 93, 4–9. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.08086. Google Scholar
• McGonagle, Tarlach (2017): “Fake news”: False fears or real concerns? Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 35 (4), 203–209. Accessed November 16, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0924051917738685. Google Scholar
• Nougayrede Natalie (2018): In this age of propaganda, we must defend ourselves. Here’s how. Google Scholar
• The Guardian (31/01/18) Accessed November 16, 2020. Google Scholar
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/31/propaganda-defend-russia-technology Google Scholar
• Pal Anjan, Banerjee Snehasish (2019): Understanding online falsehood from the perspective of social problem. In I. E. Chiluwa & S. A. Samoilenko (Eds.), Advances in media, entertainment, and the arts (AMEA) book series. Handbook of research on deception, fake news, and misinformation online (p. 1–17). Information Science Reference/IGI Global. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-8535-0.ch001 Google Scholar
• Pennycook Gordon, McPhetres Jonathon, Zhang Yunhao, Rand G. David (2020): Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy nudge intervention. SAGE Journals. Psychological Science, 31(7) 770–780. Accessed November 16, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939054. Google Scholar
• Piller Ingrid, Zhang Jie, Li Jia (2020): Linguistic diversity in a time of crisis: Language challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multilingua 2020, 39(5), 503-515. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2020-0136. Accessed October 23, 2020. Google Scholar
• Porter Jon (2020): Snopes Forced to Scale Back Fact- Checking In Face of Overwhelming COVID-19 Misinformation. The Verge, March 24, 2020, https:// www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21192206/snopes-coronavirus-covid-19-misinformation-fact-checking-staff. Accessed October 23, 2020. Google Scholar
• Posetti Julie, Matthews Alice (2018): A short guide to the history of ‘fake news’ and disinformation. A learning module for journalists and journalism educators. International Centre for Journalists. Google Scholar
• Accessed November 20, 2020. https://www.icfj.org/sites/default/files/2018-07/A%20Short%20Guide%20to%20History%20of%20Fake%20News%20and%20Disinformation_ICFJ%20Final.pdf Google Scholar
• Pulido M. Christina, Villarejo-Carballido Beatriz, Redondo-Sama Gisela, Gómez Alitor (2020): COVID-19 infodemic: More retweets for science-based information on coronavirus than for false information. SAGE Journals. International Sociology 35(4), 377-392. Accessed November 16, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580920914755. Google Scholar
• Scheufele A. Dietram, Krause M. Nicole (2019): Science audiences, misinformation, and fake news. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116(16), 7662–9. Accessed November 20, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805871115. Google Scholar
• Tan Hua Kim, Woods Peter, Azman Hazita, Abdullah Imran Ho, Hashim Ruzy Suliza, Rahim Hajar Abdul, Idrus Mohd Muzhafar, Said Nur Ehsan Mohd, Lew Robert, Kosem Iztok (2020) COVID-19 insights and linguistic methods. 3L.The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 26(2), 1-23. Accessed November 12, 2020. http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2020-2602-01. Google Scholar
• Thompson Nik, Wang Xuequn, Daya Pratiq (2019): Determinants of news sharing behavior on social media. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 60(6), 593–601. Accessed November 1, 2020. doi:10.1080/08874417.2019.1566803. Google Scholar
• Vasu Norman, Benjamin Ang, Terri-Anne Teo, Shashi Jayakumar, Muhammad Faizal, and Juhi Ahuja (2018): FAKE NEWS: NATIONAL SECURITY IN THE POST-TRUTH ERA. Report. S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, 2018. 5-9. Accessed November 18, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep17648.5. Google Scholar
• Wang Yuxi, Mckee Martin, Torbica Aleksandra, Stuckler David (2019): Social Science & Medicine Systematic Literature Review on the Spread of Health-related Misinformation on Social Media. Social Science & Medicine 240, 112552. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112552. Google Scholar
• Wardle Claire, Derakhshan Hossein (2017): INFORMATION DISORDER: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policy making. Council of Europe report DGI(2017)09. Accessed November 20, 2020. https://rm.coe.int/information-disorder-toward-an-interdisciplinary-framework-for-researc/168076277c. Google Scholar
• Waszak M. Przemyslaw, Kasprzycka-Waszak Wioleta, Kubanek Alicja (2018): The spread of medical fake news in social media – The pilot quantitative study. Health Policy and Technology 7 (2), 115–118. Accessed November 16, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2018.03.002. Google Scholar
• World Health Organisation (2020): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Mythbusters. Accessed November 1, 2020. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters. Google Scholar

Identifiers

DOI

10.7311/tid.15.2021.08

Biblioteka Nauki

2119585