{"id":556,"date":"2021-02-05T21:10:21","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T21:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/?p=556"},"modified":"2021-02-05T21:16:21","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T21:16:21","slug":"almost-all-canadians-have-seen-covid-19-misinformation-online-according-to-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/2021\/02\/05\/almost-all-canadians-have-seen-covid-19-misinformation-online-according-to-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost all Canadians have seen COVID-19 misinformation online, according to study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Statistics Canada released a study reporting 96% of Canadians have seen inaccurate, misleading or false COVID-19 information online<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a new study released by <a href=\"https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/n1\/en\/pub\/45-28-0001\/2021001\/article\/00003-eng.pdf?st=MbHbZ59O\">Statistics Canada<\/a> on Tuesday, almost all Canadians have seen COVID-19 misinformation online since the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The study revealed that over half of Canadians have shared COVID-19 information without knowing its accuracy, with just one in five Canadians reporting that they consistently verify information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div style=\"width: 100%;\"><div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 40.00%; padding-top: 0; height: 0;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"200\" height=\"800\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 80%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/view.genial.ly\/601da48ec7e0a27d7691d6c9\" type=\"text\/html\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" scrolling=\"yes\" allownetworking=\"all\"><\/iframe> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news\/item\/23-09-2020-managing-the-covid-19-infodemic-promoting-healthy-behaviours-and-mitigating-the-harm-from-misinformation-and-disinformation\">World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement<\/a> in September that said an \u201cinfodemic\u201d has accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. They describe this as an overabundance of true and false information, making it difficult for people to identify facts and reliable sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Melodie Song, a research collaborator at the Social Media Lab at Ryerson University, said that the issue with online information is the \u201clack of gatekeeping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTraditionally, we\u2019ve had journalists fact-check information before it is printed or broadcasted,\u201d she said. However, with social media, that time is long gone. \u201cNow, people can post anything,\u201d Song said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<div style=\"width: 100%;\"><div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 50.00%; padding-top: 0; height: 0;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/view.genial.ly\/601cc9ed15de920d2c224dfc\" type=\"text\/html\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" scrolling=\"yes\" allownetworking=\"all\"><\/iframe> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<p>With the study revealing that 96 per cent of Canadians saw inaccurate, misleading or false COVID-19 information online, Song said that social media algorithms recognize individual\u2019s searches and preferences and are likely to recommend more of the same content, regardless of its accuracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo, if you\u2019re trying to look into conspiracy stories, they\u2019re likely to select those. Then you\u2019re stuck in that rabbit hole, and you can\u2019t get out of it because the information is passively being sent to them,\u201d said Song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study also showed that Canadians 55-years and older were more likely to share COVID-19 information without checking its accuracy than those between the ages of 15 to 54-years-old.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"width: 100%;\"><div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 50.00%; padding-top: 0; height: 0;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/view.genial.ly\/601d7d1ec7e0a27d7691d232\" type=\"text\/html\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" scrolling=\"yes\" allownetworking=\"all\"><\/iframe> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Song said this is not surprising to hear as those who grew up with social media can understand that not all online information comes from reliable sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s surprising to me is that there are no communication channels from the government to identify the misinformation that is floating around,\u201d said Song. \u201cIt\u2019s quite concerning, but it\u2019s not surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Statistics Canada released a study reporting 96% of Canadians have seen inaccurate, misleading or false COVID-19 information online According to a new study released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday, almost all Canadians have seen COVID-19 misinformation online since the start of the pandemic. The study revealed that over half of Canadians have shared COVID-19 information [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":324,"featured_media":575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}