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38395 Spreading the (fake) News: A Study of Health Misinformation on Social Media Using the Zika Virus Case

Silvia Sommariva, MPA, MSc1, Cheryl Vamos, PhD2, Alexios Mantzarlis, MA, MSc3, Lillie Dao, MA4 and Dinorah Martinez Tyson, PhD4, 1Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Tampa, FL, 2Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 3Poynter Institute for Media Studies, tampa, FL, 4College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Tampa, FL

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:  On February 1, 2016, the World Health Organization declared Zika a public health emergency. Over the following months, in parallel to public information campaigns by health authorities, a wide range of Zika-centered hoaxes spread across social media platforms. The "fake news" phenomenon has been widely documented in the media. However, its magnitude in public health is understudied. This article aims to shed light on the role of social media as platforms for communication of health messages, using Zika as case study.

Methods:  An analysis of the volume of engagements/shares on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest and GooglePlus of the most popular Zika-related stories (n=120) from February 2016 to January 2017 was performed using the social media content analysis tool BuzzSumo. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to determine stories’ accuracy. The reach of stories released by mainstream newspapers and health news outlets - identified using the web traffic measurements services comScore and Alexa – was also analyzed.

Results:  Misleading and fake stories generated 1.96 times more engagements than verified stories. Fabricated posts had an average of 70,000 shares, compared to 16,000 for verified stories. When considering monthly data, the proportion of fabricated news decreased substantially over the course of the year. The decline in the reach of fake news is concurrent with the overall decline in engagements of Zika-related stories. It could be inferred that as users lost interest in Zika, the weight of fake news declined as well.

Conclusions:  Results from this analysis suggest that effective health communication strategies need to be responsive when fake news gain momentum on social media and that later corrections may not be as effective.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Evidence on the size of the fake news phenomenon with respect to crucial public health issues such as Zika is necessary to improve health communication practice. Social media engagements data are a resource that has yet to be fully explored and that can increase the ability to develop data-driven, effective health communication messages.

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