DisinfoAfrica’s Herman Wasserman addressed first WHO infodemiology conference
Professor Herman Wasserman one of the project leaders of DisninfoAfrica delivered a keynote address at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first infodemiology conference. The 1st WHO Infodemiology Conference, as the name suggests, deals with the phenomenon of an ‘infodemic’. According to the WHO, an infodemic is an “overabundance of...
Resources on Fact Checking COVID-19-related Misinformation
Many African fact-checking organizations have been making sure that misinformation related to COVID-19 on social media does not go unchecked. There are several very useful resources that are regularly upated with examples of inaccurate or false posts circulating on social media. Here is a rolling list of some of...
Researchers at Cardiff University find that people in the UK can spot fake news on COVID-19
Researchers at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture have found that the UK public can spot fake news about COVID-19, but but don’t realise the UK’s death toll is far higher than in many other countries. In a small-scale, exploratory study, Stephen Cushion, Nikki Soo, Maria Kyriakidou...
[News Story] WhatsApp Viral Messages ‘Drop 70%’ According to the Company
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and after users and governments complained about the amount of misinformation circulating on WhatsApp, the platform announced new measures to curb the virality of messages. Now, WhatsApp says that it has sseen a reduction of 70% in viral messages. There’s been several...
“Deconstructing De-legitimization of Mainstream Media as Sources of Authentic News in the Post-Truth Era”
A new article was publishedd in Communicatio: South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research by Moses Ofome Asak and Tshepang Bright Molale, researchers at North West University in South Africa, that explores the publication of “fake news reportage” on two South African newspapers. Here is the abstract of...
[Media Contribution] Chat with the China in Africa Podcast on Chinese Media, COVID-19 and Misinformation
One of the lead researchers of the Misinformation, Disinformation & False News Research Project, Dani Madrid-Morales (University of Houston), joine the China in Africa Podcast to discuss some of the strategies that Chinese media have been implementing in recent weeks to push back against prevalent narratives around COVID-19 and...
Working on a New Book on False News in the Global South
The lead researchers of the Misinformation, Disinformation & False News Research Project, Herman Wasserman and Dani Madridd-Morales, are working on an edited volume titled Rumors, false news and disinformation in the Global South. It will be published by Wiley, and it is expected to come out in early 2021....
[News Story] A collection of COVID-19-related misinformation in Africa
The BBC’s Reality Check has published a list of health-related misinformation circulating on African social media accounts. Some of the false claims include “that inhaling steam is an effective treatment against coronavirus”, or that people are “retaliating against the Chinese community in Africa” after instances of racism against Africans...
New Research Grant to Study Misinformation on COVID-19 and China in South Africa
One of the lead researchers of the Misinformation, Disinformation & False News Research Project, Herman Wasserman (University of Cape Town), has been awarded a Research Grant by South Africa’s National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Funds from this twelve-month project, that will start in April 2020, will...
Research Presented at Comparative Misinformation Workshop, Harvard University
This week we presented preliminary findings of our comparative study on motivations for sharing misinformation and disinformation in several Sub-Saharan African countries at the Comparative Approaches to Disinformation Workshop, held at Harvard University. This ongoing project uses focus groups to compare sharing practices across five (soon to be six)...