Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Infodemiology
Date Submitted: Jan 27, 2021
Date Accepted: Jul 16, 2021
Impact of the online COVID-19 infodemic on French Red Cross actors’ field engagement and protective behaviors: A hybrid social listening study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic has been widely described as an “infodemic”, an excess of information alimented by social and traditional media. In identifying problematic narratives and measuring their online spread, one key thematic cutting across many such analyses is that it is a threat to be managed through effective emergency risk communication. It nevertheless remains challenging to identify precisely how social media debates affect complex public decision-making and behavior offline.
Objective:
This study investigated whether information reported through the widely-used social media channel Twitter, linked articles and websites, and selected traditional media affected the risk perception, engagement in field activities, and protective behaviors of French Red Cross volunteers and health workers in the Paris region of France during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Methods:
We tracked daily Twitter discussions and selected traditional media in France for seven months, identifying COVID-19 claims and debates about viral origins, non-pharmaceutical protection measures, and potential treatments and vaccines. We conducted 24 semi-structured interviews with workers and volunteers.
Results:
Media and social media debates about viral risks, epidemiological measures, non-pharmaceutical interventions, potential treatments and vaccines did fan anxieties among FRC volunteers and workers. Nevertheless, decisions to continue conducting FRC field activities and daily protection practices conjugated with other proximate factors. In addition, some respondents developed strategies for “tuning out” the influence of social and traditional medias.
Conclusions:
This study, employing two distinct datasets, suggests complex interactions between an online COVID-19 infodemic and offline perceptions and behavior. Respondents in semi-structured interviews expressed anxieties about the sheer quantities of information they received, contradictory and at times deliberately provocative or speculative. Their decisions to participate in FRC field activities and daily protective measures, however, were guided not only by the infodemic, but by several other factors. Further investigation and better theorization of how social and occupational groups interpret and act on contradictory information is needed. Clinical Trial: Not applicable
Citation
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Copyright
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