Fake news and the impact of mass misinformation on COVID-19

 By KATY SNODGRASS 

ks439219@ohio.edu 

"The Great Moon Hoax" by The Sun tabloid from 1835. The image is from a series of false articles by the nonexistent Edinburgh Journal of Science depicting the discovery of life on the moon. (Brown.) History Reference | The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 (archive.org)

As long as journalism and free speech have existed in the United States, fake news has been an issue within all types and formats of media. We, as humans, have an un-scratchable itch for attention-grabbing stories and compelling headlines that started as early as the invention of the printing press. 

"A Brief History of Fake News"  

According to the article attached above, the history of fake news can be dated as far back as 1755, with the Catholic Church publishing false propaganda regarding an earthquake. The spreading of false information for the sake of gossip and tabloid sales is not a new concept; however, the introduction of social media has dramatically increased the scope in which the masses can consume false information. 

The spread of fake news has steadily increased since the early 2010s and continues to worsen as more information about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is discovered and released daily. Anita Varma, the assistant director of Journalism and Media Ethics at Santa Clara University, describes five different types of misinformation spread specifically about COVID-19 in an article for SCU. 

While each category of COVID fake news listed by Varma was different, the overarching theme was bending the truth to fit a group's political and ideological views. According to Varma's article, whether it be a failure to accurately report on case numbers and the death toll or businesses denying the risks of COVID-19 to try and save themselves from going under. 

"Studying Fake News and COVID-19"

Due to how recent the COVID-19 pandemic started and the continuing discoveries being made each day about how to combat the virus, new research is also being done covering social media's impact on the spread of COVID-19 related false information. Such as the attached study conducted by Telematics and Informatics, a notable journal that publishes "innovative theoretical and methodological research on the social, economic, geographic, political, and cultural impacts of digital technologies." 

Telematics and Informatics found that there is an ongoing misinformation phenomenon throughout society because of social media's popularity. Even government figures and noteworthy individuals alter information to suit their beliefs better. That has caused increased panic levels about the virus with a decreased amount of truthful, accurate information. 

According to research, Lampos et al., 2020 argued that along with the urgency of finding treatment for COVID-19, fake news proliferation has intensified on social media, which many experts believe contributes to the pandemic's threats. 

For now, only time will tell how the long-lasting effects misinformation has on public health as the pandemic continues and new variants pop up and spread.