Combating Misinformation and Rumours

PERSPECTIVE

Across the full spectrum of Development issues, and the full range of communication, public engagement and media strategies, ill-founded rumours and misinformation are a major problem. Using COVID-19 as a very current example: How can we best respond? Which strategies could be adopted? Drawing from knowledge shared across The CI platform, please critique and comment on the learning, analysis and proposed strategies that follow.

THE CHALLENGE

COVID-19 is highly fertile ground for misinformation and rumours, whether accidental and unintended or deliberate and malicious. We all need help to make sense of the mass of information that is being blasted at every one of us.

COVID-19 came upon us quickly. There was no built-up body of knowledge. The reputable information about COVID-19 kept changing and keeps evolving on some vitally important matters – for example:

• Can people transmit it when asymptomatic?
• If yes, what are the levels of asymptomatic infection?
• How long can the virus survive on surfaces?
• What effect does the virus have on children and adolescents?
• What is the nature and trend of the epidemiological patterns?
• What is the effectiveness of already-approved drugs for other health issues?
• How long before we get a vaccine?
• Can people who have had COVID-19 be re-infected?

This is all fertile ground for rumours and misinformation.

The overall disease control strategies adopted make a big difference in the receptiveness of populations to rumours and misinformation.

At the strategic level, those strategies will need to ensure:

• The accuracy, reliability and consistency of the information being provided;
• The credibility and standing of the people delivering that information; and
• The resonance with the population - are they engaged?

If one or all of those elements are not in place, then the possibility of rumours and misinformation gaining hold and spreading is enhanced.

The nearly pervasive presence of basic and smart phones, social networks and WhatsApp groups (or the equivalent) helps provide fuel for rumours and misinformation. Everyone can be an instant news and information machine with reach way beyond any numerical, temporal, geographical, fact-checking or editing constraints. Accuracy, credibility and resonance are vital.

In relation to specific actions that are being developed for an effective response to COVID-19, if there is a major gap between the nature of the action encouraged and the possibility for implementation by people and communities, there is further fertile ground for the amplification of disruptive rumours and misinformation. These global recommendations include actions such as: maintain a 6-foot distance, wash hands with soap and water multiple times per day, wear a mask, close down your businesses, stay at home, and cancel all events that normally gather people in large groups such as weddings and funerals. These and other strategies appear to be vitally important for effective COVID-19 action. But in order to avoid creating fertile territory for the strengthening of rumours and misinformation, they will need to be introduced and implemented relative to the conditions in each country and community.

There seems to be a continuing dynamic that makes matters worse for effective action and better for rumours and misinformation on challenges posed by COVID-19. What is a fact? What is accurate information? In relation to COVID-19, the trend in many countries is to mix facts and accurate information with opinion, wishes and ideological preferences, and then to present that mix as the truth. In that context, rumours and misinformation flourish. This is an important challenge to confront for effective action on Development priorities such as COVID-19.

As with all Development issues, engagement, analysis and action that take into account and work to the gender, local voices, minority languages, socio-economic and other perspectives, are vitally important as both matters of principle and for effectiveness. They underpin all that follows.

STRATEGIES - What should we do?

Below are six key points from the learning to date shared through The CI platform on how to handle the challenge of misinformation and rumours.

A. Go to people – do not expect them to come to you:

Premise: Within communities or online, everyone is part of a network. Those networks inter-relate, so there is significant scale.

Pointers:

1. Whether in person or online, find ways to identify the most popular and prevalent networks and engage in those spaces.
2. Do not create your own platform and space in the expectation that people will come to you in significant numbers.
3. Find ways to identify the most popular and prevalent networks and engage in those spaces. The people within those networks are often the most credible for others in the network. And that credibility is strengthened by their "ownership" of their own platforms.
4. Negotiate access into fora such as local community meetings, popular social media networks, coalitions of women's groups, journalists' networks, local government alliances, the arts/music community, local and national radio presenters and producers, popular entertainment shows, etc. In each context, these will be different.

Suggested reading: Social Media Initiative in Ukraine: Analysis of Online Conversations on Polio, Vaccination, and Routine Immunization

B. Combine scientific evidence with storytelling, especially through the voices of people directly affected:

Premise: Communications either responding to actual misinformation or getting out front of potential rumours and misinformation need to resonate. Facts alone are rarely sufficient. Most people are attracted to and engage with storytelling.

Pointers:

1. Recognise the fact that stories resonate.
2. Ensure that the voices and stories of people who have experienced or are at risk of COVID-19 are at the forefront of any communication strategy.
3. Identify and partner with the main storytelling facilitators in your context - from radio and TV dramas to local community "story-tellers".
4. Explore and test which stories are most compelling - the ones that resonate strongest across populations.
5. Have local people tell their own stories in their own ways - authenticity is vitally important.

Suggested reading: How Organisations Promoting Vaccination Respond to Misinformation on Social Media: A Qualitative Investigation

C. Identify and name the rumour and misinformation "source" and motivation:

Premise: Most of us have no idea about the sources that initiate, feed or amplify specific rumours and misinformation in our local and national contexts. Therefore, it is difficult to make informed judgments related to accuracy and credibility.

Pointers:

1. Support the acquiring of expanded media literacy skills.
2. Do not assume that people will know the rumour/misinformation sources and their motivations.
3. Identify and "name" the sources of rumours and misinformation and/or those escalating the presence of the rumours and misinformation.
4. Understand and shine a light on the possible motivations of the communicator (e.g., money, politics, personal ambition, personal anecdotal experiences, ideology) of the rumour or misinformation in a manner that can help to undermine and neutralise its potency.

Suggested reading: Managing Misinformation in a Humanitarian Context

D. Undertake two-way communication that responds to the public's concerns as a conversation:

Premise: As outlined within "The Challenge" above, there is a lot we do not know and are still learning about COVID-19. The facts can change and have changed.

Pointers:

1. Be aware that, in this context as with many other Development issues, the value of traditional message-driven communications is severely weakened; there are just too many questions.
2. Initiate and facilitate population-level conversations, whether in digital or other environments.
3. Use those conversations to engage with people on their questions and concerns.
4. Ensure there are participants in those conversations who are viewed as credible.
5. Check or question the sources of information shared in the conversations, being aware that deliberate misinformation is sometimes disguised as an official communication from a reputable source.
6. Do not be didactic and all-knowing.
7. Avoid political and ideological affiliation in anything that is being communicated.
8. Allocate resources to establish and facilitate those conversations.

Suggested reading: Key Considerations: Online Information, Mis- and Disinformation in the Context of COVID-19

E. (This should go without saying but) Get your own facts straight!

Premise: Nothing undermines an anti-rumour and anti-misinformation strategy more than getting the facts and information that are the base of that strategy wrong.

Pointers:

1. Get your sources right.
2. Get your facts right.
3. Verify images and videos.
4. Get maps right.
5. Do not get the basics wrong.
6. Be very transparent about what is NOT known about COVID-19.
7. Remember that humility can go a long way in increasing the trust needed to counter rumours and misinformation.

Suggested reading: Covering COVID-19: Handbook for Journalists

F. Pay attention to lessons learned from past health crises:

Premise: Recalling past success stories and learning from previous pandemics adds authority to guidance and advice for effective strategies in the context of contemporary challenges including, at this time, COVID-19.

Pointers:

Using Ebola as an example, though we could have featured H1N1 and SARS; Polio; or HIV/AIDS.

1. Recognise that the levels of trust and influence of the key organisations in communities really matter.
2. Prioritise of a "bottom-up" approach, including the engagement of community leaders from the onset.
3. Note that laws are vital to controlling an outbreak.
4. Ensure a role for survivors, who are key in rebuilding trust with the health system.
5. Incorporate the finding that interaction with patients has impacted knowledge of transmission mechanisms.

Suggested reading: An Exploratory Study to Examine the Effectiveness of Community Based Ebola Virus Disease Prevention and Management Strategies in Bo District, Sierra Leone

FURTHER INSIGHTS and LEARNING THAT COULD BE HELPFUL:

1. Dynamics and Motivation of Online Pro- and Anti-vaccination Lobbyists in Nigeria: A Qualitative Exploration.
2. Why Vaccine Mistrust Is a Relationship Problem
3. Vaccine Hesitancy and Online Information: The Influence of Digital Networks
4. Quick Links #9: Fake News
5. Engaging Influencers: Building Trust
6. The Polio Network - RUMOURS
7. The COVID-19 Communication and Community Engagement Hub - MISINFORMATION

Please critique and comment to help build the strength of this strategic guidance.

Thank you