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Social Media and the Influence of Fake News on Global Health Interventions: Implications for a Study on Dengue in Brazil
Social media usage is growing globally, with an exponential increase in low- and middle-income countries. Social media changes the ways in which information-sharing occurs, intensifying the population’s exposure to misinformation, including fake news. This has important repercussions for global heal...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10093785/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37047915 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075299 |
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author | Gagnon-Dufresne, Marie-Catherine Azevedo Dantas, Mayana Abreu Silva, Kellyanne Souza dos Anjos, Jean Pessoa Carneiro Barbosa, Delano Porto Rosa, Rebeca de Luca, William Zahreddine, Monica Caprara, Andrea Ridde, Valéry Zinszer, Kate |
author_facet | Gagnon-Dufresne, Marie-Catherine Azevedo Dantas, Mayana Abreu Silva, Kellyanne Souza dos Anjos, Jean Pessoa Carneiro Barbosa, Delano Porto Rosa, Rebeca de Luca, William Zahreddine, Monica Caprara, Andrea Ridde, Valéry Zinszer, Kate |
author_sort | Gagnon-Dufresne, Marie-Catherine |
collection | PubMed |
description | Social media usage is growing globally, with an exponential increase in low- and middle-income countries. Social media changes the ways in which information-sharing occurs, intensifying the population’s exposure to misinformation, including fake news. This has important repercussions for global health. The spread of fake news can undermine the implementation of evidence-based interventions and weaken the credibility of scientific expertise. This is particularly worrisome in countries, such as Brazil, in a sociopolitical context characterized by a lack of popular trust in public institutions. In this project report, we describe our experience with the spread of fake news through the social media platform WhatsApp during the implementation of a cluster randomized controlled trial aimed at reducing dengue incidence in children in Fortaleza (Brazil). During initial visits to selected clusters, the research team was met with resistance. Then, soon after data collection started, fake news began circulating about the study. As a result, the research team developed strategies to dispel suspicion and further promote the study. However, the climate of violence and mistrust, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, forced the interruption of the study in 2019. The lessons learned from our experience in Fortaleza can be useful to other researchers and practitioners implementing large-scale interventions in this era of health-related misinformation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10093785 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100937852023-04-13 Social Media and the Influence of Fake News on Global Health Interventions: Implications for a Study on Dengue in Brazil Gagnon-Dufresne, Marie-Catherine Azevedo Dantas, Mayana Abreu Silva, Kellyanne Souza dos Anjos, Jean Pessoa Carneiro Barbosa, Delano Porto Rosa, Rebeca de Luca, William Zahreddine, Monica Caprara, Andrea Ridde, Valéry Zinszer, Kate Int J Environ Res Public Health Project Report Social media usage is growing globally, with an exponential increase in low- and middle-income countries. Social media changes the ways in which information-sharing occurs, intensifying the population’s exposure to misinformation, including fake news. This has important repercussions for global health. The spread of fake news can undermine the implementation of evidence-based interventions and weaken the credibility of scientific expertise. This is particularly worrisome in countries, such as Brazil, in a sociopolitical context characterized by a lack of popular trust in public institutions. In this project report, we describe our experience with the spread of fake news through the social media platform WhatsApp during the implementation of a cluster randomized controlled trial aimed at reducing dengue incidence in children in Fortaleza (Brazil). During initial visits to selected clusters, the research team was met with resistance. Then, soon after data collection started, fake news began circulating about the study. As a result, the research team developed strategies to dispel suspicion and further promote the study. However, the climate of violence and mistrust, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, forced the interruption of the study in 2019. The lessons learned from our experience in Fortaleza can be useful to other researchers and practitioners implementing large-scale interventions in this era of health-related misinformation. MDPI 2023-03-28 /pmc/articles/PMC10093785/ /pubmed/37047915 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075299 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Project Report Gagnon-Dufresne, Marie-Catherine Azevedo Dantas, Mayana Abreu Silva, Kellyanne Souza dos Anjos, Jean Pessoa Carneiro Barbosa, Delano Porto Rosa, Rebeca de Luca, William Zahreddine, Monica Caprara, Andrea Ridde, Valéry Zinszer, Kate Social Media and the Influence of Fake News on Global Health Interventions: Implications for a Study on Dengue in Brazil |
title | Social Media and the Influence of Fake News on Global Health Interventions: Implications for a Study on Dengue in Brazil |
title_full | Social Media and the Influence of Fake News on Global Health Interventions: Implications for a Study on Dengue in Brazil |
title_fullStr | Social Media and the Influence of Fake News on Global Health Interventions: Implications for a Study on Dengue in Brazil |
title_full_unstemmed | Social Media and the Influence of Fake News on Global Health Interventions: Implications for a Study on Dengue in Brazil |
title_short | Social Media and the Influence of Fake News on Global Health Interventions: Implications for a Study on Dengue in Brazil |
title_sort | social media and the influence of fake news on global health interventions: implications for a study on dengue in brazil |
topic | Project Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10093785/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37047915 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075299 |
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