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Kia ora @TVNZ I have a little thread for you: our @PunahaMatatini research report which we released yesterday investigates the prevalence and nature of COVID-19 disinformation and conspiracy in Aotearoa. https://cpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.auckland.ac.nz/dist/d/75/files/2020/09/06092020-disinformation-formatted2.final_.pdf
so what did we find? the amount of unreliable information has remained relatively static over the period of the pandemic and related infodemic:
But there has been a significant increase since the beginning of August in mentions of 'conspiracy' in the MAINSTREAM MEDIA
We also analysed the language & narratives in social and mainstream media: we found that there was shift from more misinformation (ie not intended to harm, related to health and wellbeing claims) to more disinformation (created to mislead or to shore up conspiracy theories)
Over the period to end August 2020; we see more conspiratorial discourse and more imported ideas being locally presented:
We note the narrators of such discourse, particularly the high profile political narrators, commenting specifically on their sincerity - do they genuinely believe what they are espousing?
We comment on the impact of the intersection of COVID-19 disinformation with known conspiracy theories and theorists:
and then we discuss what these findings mean for Aotearoa's media, political, and civil society discourses:
Need the TL:DR? we summarised in an article for @TheSpinoffTV yesterday: https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/07-09-2020/counting-and-countering-the-infodemic-a-deep-dive-into-covid-19-disinformation/
Need a sharable, even shorter TL:DR? @XTOTL & @SiouxsieW have made the following, about stopping the infodemic, based on our findings & the wider research about disinformation & conspiracy: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/08-09-2020/siouxsie-wiles-toby-morris-now-lets-flatten-the-infodemic-curve/
What does this mean for you, @TVNZ & other media companies? It means that in the last month, *you* have written more stories about conspiracy, leading to a perception that it is more prevalent. This sense of prevalence leads to a sense of social consensus -
"people keep talking about it, it must have some validity." So when you invite a known narrator of conspiracy to participate in electoral debates - that's the context you are providing to those stories. Managing that through moderation is possible - do you have a plan?
How will moderators be trained? how will candidates be advised? how will fact-checking be managed? What stories are you responsible for telling?
