As the world stays home, the withdrawal from public life in response to COVID-19 has moved difficult conversations about the global pandemic to social media. Many exchanges are rife with falsehoods and misinformation, particularly on text-focused channels like Facebook and Twitter.
At MSU’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences, professors are studying the way people communicate in a crisis. Drawing upon a long tradition of research into how people communicate, they are pointing to ways citizens can help slow the spread of COVID-19 — whether it means the spread of the disease itself, or the spread of harmful memes and misinformation that could put human lives at risk.
Assistant professor Dustin Carnahan, said the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak has caused an ‘Infodemic,’ making misinformation about the disease COVID-19 prevalent online.
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