Author: The Conversation / Source: The Next Web
When news breaks – whether the story of a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack, or a natural disaster – people increasingly turn to the internet and social media. Individuals use Twitter and Facebook as primary sources for news and information.
Social media platforms – including Reddit, Wikipedia, and other emerging outlets such as Snapchat – are distinct from traditional broadcast and print media.
But they’ve become powerful tools for communicating rapidly and without intermediary gatekeepers, like editors.The problem is social media is also a great way to spread misinformation, too. Millions of Americans shape their ideas on complex and controversial scientific questions – things like personal genetic testing, genetically modified foods and their use of antibiotics – based on what they see on social media.
Even many traditional news organizations and media outlets report incomplete aspects of scientific studies, or misinterpret the findings and highlight unusual claims. Once these items enter into the social media echo chamber, they’re amplified. The facts become lost in the shuffle of competing information, limited attention or both.
A recent workshop about Social Media Effects on Scientific Controversies that we convened through the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Boston University fielded a panel of interdisciplinary experts to discuss their own experiences and research in communicating science online.
These public scholars examined the extent to which social media has disrupted scientific understanding. Most indicated it’s more possible than ever for researchers to participate meaningfully in public debates and contribute to the creation and diffusion of scientific knowledge – but social media presents many pitfalls along the way.
Post a lot, know a lot?
Our team from the Emerging Media Studies division at Boston University presented new findings that indicate social media can perpetuate misinformation about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and may contribute indirectly to the misuse of antibiotics.
In a nationwide survey, we found that the more frequently respondents reported posting and sharing any information online to social media, they were increasingly likely to be highly misinformed about AMR. This suggests that those individuals most active in contributing to social media were actually propagating inaccurate information.
Our finding follows previous studies of online rumors: people are more likely to believe political rumors and share them with others when they’re received via email from friends or family.
We also found traditional media use – watching television, listening to talk radio, reading newspapers – was also related to higher levels of AMR misinformation.
When taken together, our findings suggest there may be a misinformation cycle taking shape. Traditional media exposure, it seems, can be a source of AMR misinformation.
Increased posting of content to social media reinforces misinformation, and in our study those higher levels of AMR misinformation are shown to increase the likelihood that individuals will misuse antibiotics. Eventually, such misuse increases antimicrobial resistance, which makes it harder for us to treat illnesses and may give rise to superbugs.
“Scienceploitation” on social media
Another panelist was University of Alberta law and public health professor Tim Caulfield, who actively works to diminish the phenomenon he calls “scienceploitation.”
He defines the term as when media reporting takes a legitimate area of science and inaccurately simplifies it for the general public.
Scienceploitation is embodied in especially egregious “click-bait” headlines. Think the Huffington Post erroneously equating a glass of red wine to an hour at the gym, or the viral hoax study that linked eating chocolate with losing weight.
Caulfield himself studies how stem cell clinics market unproven therapies for serious diseases and the way widespread acceptance of these treatments often goes virtually unchallenged on social media.
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