Infodemic: Combatting COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories

世界卫生组织警告称，围绕新冠肺炎的虚假信息构成“信息狂人”。为了回应这一警告，该项目将重点关注阴谋论，认为这是一种特别有害的虚假信息。我们的研究将导致改进战略，打击阴谋论在大流行病中的传播。它将使用数字人文和文化研究的方法来绘制这些叙事在危机期间如何在网络环境中传播的地图。我们将在从社交媒体平台提取的纵向数据集上使用数据抓取和网络可视化工具，以识别冠状病毒阴谋论的传播机制、媒介和历史。我们还将使用文本分析、数字人种学和政治经济学来分析这些叙事产生的文化和政治背景。通过制作这一复杂在线生态系统的一系列快照地图，我们将能够分析阴谋者错误信息在疫情期间是如何激增的，这反过来将使我们能够评估社交媒体平台不同干预措施的有效性。我们将在同行评议的期刊文章和短书中发表我们的研究成果。我们将与反虚假信息组织初稿合作，将我们的结果和建议以《信息人实战指南》的形式传达给记者和公众。我们将与慈善机构Sense About Science和教育研究所合作，为面临如何解决信息症问题的教师、年轻人和科学传播者制作教育材料。

Responding to the WHO's warning that misinformation surrounding COVID-19 constitute an 'infodemic', this project will focus on conspiracy theories as a particularly harmful kind of misinformation. Our research will lead to improved strategies for combatting the spread of conspiracy theories in the pandemic. It will use methods from digital humanities and cultural studies to map how these narratives circulate in the online environment during the crisis. We will use data scraping and network visualisation tools on a longitudinal data set extracted from social media platforms in order to identify the mechanisms, vectors and histories of transmission of coronavirus conspiracy theories. We will also employ textual analysis, digital ethnography and political economy to analyse the cultural and political contexts in which these narratives arise. By producing a series of 'snapshot' mappings of this complex online ecosystem, we will be able to analyse how conspiracist misinformation has proliferated during the course of the pandemic, which in turn will enable us to assess the effectiveness of the varying interventions by the social media platforms. We will publish our research findings in a peer-reviewed journal article and short book. In collaboration with the anti-misinformation organisation First Draft, we will communicate our results and recommendations to journalists and the general public in a 'Field Guide to the Infodemic'. Working with the campaigning charity Sense about Science and the Institute of Education, we will produce educational materials for teachers, young people and science communicators confronted with the problem of how to tackle the infodemic.