Leveraging media and health communication strategies to overcome the COVID-19 infodemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a complementary infodemic, whereby various outlets and digital media portals shared false information and unsourced recommendations on health. In addition, journals and authors published a mass of academic articles at a speed that suggests a non-existent or a non-rig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public health policy Vol. 41; no. 4; pp. 410 - 420
Main Authors: Mheidly, Nour, Fares, Jawad
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Springer Science + Business Media 01.12.2020
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Palgrave Macmillan
Subjects:
Adaptation, Psychological
Communication
Communication strategies
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19: Public Health response
Digital media
Discourse strategies
Dissemination
Empathy
Equality and Human Rights
False information
Health Communication - methods
Health Communication - standards
Health education
Health information
Health planning
Health policy
Health promotion
Humans
Information dissemination
Internet - standards
Mass media
Mass Media - standards
Mass media effects
Medical Sociology
Pandemics
Peer review
Policy making
Prevention programs
Public Health
SARS-CoV-2
Social Justice
Social media
Social Media - standards
Social Policy
Social Sciences
Sociology
Stress, Psychological - epidemiology
Time Factors
VIEWPOINT
COVID-19
Infodemic
Social media
Science
Pandemic
Infodemic Response Checklist
Peer review
Communication
ISSN:0197-5897, 1745-655X, 1745-655X
Online Access:Get full text
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Description
Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a complementary infodemic, whereby various outlets and digital media portals shared false information and unsourced recommendations on health. In addition, journals and authors published a mass of academic articles at a speed that suggests a non-existent or a non-rigorous peer review process. Such lapses can promote false information and adoption of health policies based on misleading data. Reliable information is vital for designing and implementing preventive measures and promoting health awareness in the fight against COVID-19. In the age of social media, information travels wide and fast, emphasizing a need for accurate data to be corroborated swiftly and for preventing misleading information from wide dissemination. Here, we discuss the implications of the COVID-19 infodemic and explore practical ways to leverage health communication strategies to overcome it. We propose the “Infodemic Response Checklist” as a comprehensive tool to overcome the challenges posed by the current and any future infodemics.
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ISSN:0197-5897
1745-655X
1745-655X
DOI:10.1057/s41271-020-00247-w