WhatsApp-funded study on fake news kicks off in four states

Press/Media: Project or Organisational News Item

Description

Misinformation Vulnerabilities among Elderly during Disease Outbreaks 
Santosh Vijaykumar, PhD, Northumbria University; Arun Nair, Health Systems Research India Initiative; Claudia Pagliari, PhD, University of Edinburgh; Venkat Chilukuri, PhD, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology; Yan Jin, PhD, University of Georgia 
This study aims to identify the nature of, and find potential solutions to the kinds of vulnerabilities that misinformation imposes on older adults during infectious disease outbreaks with a demographic that is shown to be especially vulnerable to this problem. Situated in Bangalore, India, the study will comprise of two phases: formative research that will use automated social media analytics of news coverage to identify key themes of misinformation that spread during previous infectious disease outbreaks in India, and a factorial survey experiment to test how older adults and their children respond to different levels of misinformation presented in different formats.

Period9 May 2019

Media coverage

1

Media coverage

  • TitleWhatsApp-funded study on fake news kicks off in four states
    Degree of recognitionInternational
    Media name/outletMediaNama
    Media typeWeb
    Country/TerritoryIndia
    Date9/05/19
    DescriptionClaudia Pagliari and colleagues are mentioned in this article on new research in India funded by WhatsApp.

    Misinformation Vulnerabilities among Elderly during Disease Outbreaks
    Santosh Vijaykumar, PhD, Northumbria University; Arun Nair, Health Systems Research India Initiative; Claudia Pagliari, PhD, University of Edinburgh; Venkat Chilukuri, PhD, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology; Yan Jin, PhD, University of Georgia
    This study aims to identify the nature of, and find potential solutions to the kinds of vulnerabilities that misinformation imposes on older adults during infectious disease outbreaks with a demographic that is shown to be especially vulnerable to this problem. Situated in Bangalore, India, the study will comprise of two phases: formative research that will use automated social media analytics of news coverage to identify key themes of misinformation that spread during previous infectious disease outbreaks in India, and a factorial survey experiment to test how older adults and their children respond to different levels of misinformation presented in different formats.

    Producer/AuthorZaheer Merchant (journalist) for MediaNama
    PersonsClaudia Pagliari