Dear Colleagues,
I put up this question at RG in order to find out what is being studied about the effects on people of social media memes as they attempt to find reliable information regarding social media memes.
In my original data set about the addictive power of memes to shape memory storage and alter personality, I was mainly looking at political memes.
It may be also important to study the effects of memes upon people's ability to find verifiable information. So please post any studies that you are aware of so that we can compile these in one place. I hope this inspires some study because I already know the power of memes from my past work on rhetoric, communication theory, and meme addictive behavior.
Here are an initial couple of links to studies which I have not read as yet, but which may be of interest. Check the bibliographies or Works Citeds, as well.
Social Media Reigned by Information or Misinformation About COVID-19: A Phenomenological Study
Social Sciences & Humanities Open Online journal:
Article Social Media Reigned by Information or Misinformation About ...
MIT Psychologists study:
Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy nudge intervention
http://ide.mit.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Covid-19%20fake%20news%20ms_psyarxiv.pdf
Peer-edited Polish Journal
SOMEBODY TO BLAME: ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE OTHER IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK
https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/sr/article/view/22505
Dear Colleagues,
This week on Public Broadcasting in the US, there was a documentary about InfoWars, one of the persistent purveyors of disinformation in the media. It is well to learn how this rhetoric works. First--going back to Aristotle--you assign a good ETHOS to a speaker, then you will follow any path in this person's arguments.
To take a "base audience" farther into believing more and worse sketchy logic, tie your outrageous claim to some other "outrage" the audience already believes. "It's just like the time that...happened...and did the mainstream media tell the truth then?"
A good example was that the InfoWars host claimed on many shows that the Sandy Hook massacre of school children was "fake" news. He even had a court battle with one of the grieving parents.
These same outrageous techniques of misinformation and lying are being applied daily to the problem of the corona virus. Memes are primary vectors of this spread of misinformation. They have no traceable source and are generated by data mining concerns tasked with "meme flooding' a huge audience. This audience, once addicted to sharing memes, will become more and more trapped in a misinformation bubble reinforced daily.
See this documentary if you have time.
LINK:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/alex-jones-and-donald-trump-how-the-candidate-echoed-the-conspiracy-theorist-on-the-campaign-trail/
Dear Gloria
I sent you a number of references on this subject but none are on this page.
Stay safe
John
Gloria Lee Mcmillan and John Cluett -- I'm also very interested in this research question as I think about potential interventions and my colleagues who make media content. John Cluett , can you post the links or send them to me directly? [email protected]
To John Cluett,
Please re-post two or three most relevant studies here. I didn't find the links you sent some time ago.
Thanks,
Gloria
To Jerin Philip,
I will email you the original data set I created I will title email "Meme Data Set"...
It's a Power Point slide show.
Gloria
Gloria Lee Mcmillan
Jerin Philip
Please find attached references to COVID19
Keep safe
John
Dear John Cluet
Thank you for your attention! I guess this information will be profitable for us!
Thanks, John. I am sorry those links got away from me.
Do others wish to add to the start of building a reference base that John and others have made?
Studies are coming out and this process is ongoing, of course. It will be good if we can shine a light on some of this research in communication of public health information (the rhetoric of involving memes/social media) in one spot.
Dear Followers of the Social Media Aspect of the Pandemic,
Here's a good video on the way to get clear and accurate information.
Gloria
LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMzYuA9xEpE&utm_source=TOL+mailing+list&utm_campaign=fc49a2b7d5-TOLNewsletter2020_07_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_35d0a711b5-fc49a2b7d5-298049550&ct=t(TOLNewsletter2020_07_14)&mc_cid=fc49a2b7d5&mc_eid=f77b59984b
Dear Colleagues,
Here is an interview the epidemiologist, Dr. Fauci, that should be a useful model of rhetoric put in place to inform with data.
LINK:
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/05/22/watch-cnbcs-full-interview-dr-anthony-fauci.html
Dear Colleagues,
This week on Public Broadcasting in the US, there was a documentary about InfoWars, one of the persistent purveyors of disinformation in the media. It is well to learn how this rhetoric works. First--going back to Aristotle--you assign a good ETHOS to a speaker, then you will follow any path in this person's arguments.
To take a "base audience" farther into believing more and worse sketchy logic, tie your outrageous claim to some other "outrage" the audience already believes. "It's just like the time that...happened...and did the mainstream media tell the truth then?"
A good example was that the InfoWars host claimed on many shows that the Sandy Hook massacre of school children was "fake" news. He even had a court battle with one of the grieving parents.
These same outrageous techniques of misinformation and lying are being applied daily to the problem of the corona virus. Memes are primary vectors of this spread of misinformation. They have no traceable source and are generated by data mining concerns tasked with "meme flooding' a huge audience. This audience, once addicted to sharing memes, will become more and more trapped in a misinformation bubble reinforced daily.
See this documentary if you have time.
LINK:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/alex-jones-and-donald-trump-how-the-candidate-echoed-the-conspiracy-theorist-on-the-campaign-trail/
gloria, there are many present instances of this nowadays. The reason these occur in the USA is obviously because of Trump's manipulative (and far more clever than realised) use of the media but there were many instances in the last UK election. It seems staying quiet, with dignity, is not an answer or defence by itself anymore.
Is this not partly the nature of the media employed, which are popularising instruments. Was it not Hearst who claimed to have created the Spanish American war , able to because of rises in literacy, cheap printing and unscrupulous newspaper proprietors?
Stanley--Look up Tucker Carlson's father. Tucker is in touch with some very important rhetorical sources. I don't think trump himself is doing much of this. But he knows how to hit the beats in his script, as we say in theatre.
Research is underway. The results of these studies should be published soon. The key issue is the choice of the research method used, as significantly different research methods may generate non-identical conclusions. For example, the use of the method of surveying users of social media portals and analyzing the content posted on posts, banners, entries, comments, etc. on social media with the use of Big Data Analytics should be properly selected for the specificity of the research.
Best regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
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