This contributed volume identifies how the information processes of public institutions and citizens have changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, within a new context that emerged: the infodemic disorder. Public debate is largely characterized today by a crisis of the legitimacy of institutions, accompanied by a crisis of authority in public communication, leading to the emergency of a state of information disorder due specifically to the need to find information related to the coping of the pandemic. This condition is characterized by growing attention to issues related to ‘fake news’, ‘misinformation’, and ‘media manipulation’, that are intertwined in digital platform ecosystems, and the effects of which on democracy, public communication and research, and the sharing of information in the civic sphere are broad and far-reaching. This volume analyzes the links between communication strategies of public institutions, and the resulting citizen communication, in an attempt to tease out how communication processes have changed during the pandemic. It was decided to investigate this infodemic disorder as it appeared in three different geographical contexts: Europe, Canada and Mexico and, at the same time, to bring out the formal and informal coping strategies implemented by public institutions and citizens. Beginning with an introduction to the crisis of information created by the pandemic, the contributors build a theoretical framework, provide contagion data, and subsequently, for each of the geographical contexts analyzed, explore the public communication strategies and those activated by citizens seeking to share information.
Author(s): Gevisa La Rocca, Marie-Eve Carignan, Giovanni Boccia Artieri
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 281
City: Cham
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Covid-19 and the Global Crisis of Information: an Introduction
References
Chapter 2: Infodemic Disorder: Covid-19 and Post-truth
1 Introduction: “We’re Not Just Fighting an Epidemic; We’re Fighting an Infodemic”
2 The Relationship Between Information and Health in the Connected Society
3 Infodemics Between Crisis of Trust and Information Disorder
3.1 Information Quality from Opposing Points of View
3.2 Information Selection and Infodemics
4 Infodemics and Post-Truth
5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 3: A Review of Some Covid-19 Pandemic Numbers in European Union, Canada, and Mexico
1 Introduction
2 Waves of Covid-19 Infection in Canada, the EU, and Mexico
3 Canada
3.1 Weekly New Cases
3.2 Weekly Deaths
3.3 Weekly ICU Admissions
4 The European Union
4.1 Weekly New Cases
4.2 Weekly Deaths
4.3 Weekly ICU Admissions
5 Mexico
5.1 Weekly New Cases
5.2 Weekly Deaths
6 Covid-19 in Canada, the EU, and Mexico: Similarities and Differences in the Effects of Infection
6.1 Weekly New Cases per Million People
6.2 Weekly Deaths per Million People
6.3 Weekly ICU Admissions per Million People
6.4 The Rt Index’s Trends in the 68-Week Interval
7 Conclusions
References
Chapter 4: We Are All Europeans. EU Institutions Facing the Covid-19 Pandemic and Information Crisis
1 Introduction
2 The Role of Public Sector Communication in Contemporary Informative Environments
2.1 European Communication Management. The European Multilevel Model
3 European Strategies: Tackling Disinformation and Covid-19 Crisis
3.1 Reacting to Covid-19 Against Domestic Paralysis
3.2 The European Fight Against Covid Disinformation
3.3 The Problematic Relationship with Platforms During Covid-19 Crisis
4 Conclusions
References
Chapter 5: The Practice of Emergency Gatewatching During the First Phase of the Pandemic. An Analysis Through the Tweets in Italian, Spanish, French and German
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
3 Method
4 Data Analysis
4.1 Analysis of Italian Tweets
4.2 Analysis of Spanish Tweets
4.3 Analysis of French Tweets
4.4 Analysis of German Tweets
5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 6: The Covid-19 Pandemic in Canadian Newspapers: An Analysis of the Journalistic Articles as Risk and Crisis Messages
1 Introduction
2 Crisis and Risk Communication
3 “Crisis and Media” or “Media in Crisis”?
4 Analytical Framework
4.1 Who?
4.2 What?
4.3 How?
5 Methodology
5.1 Corpus
5.2 Analysis
6 Canadian Coverage of the Onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic
6.1 What Did the Articles on the Pandemic Contain?
6.2 How Were the Journalistic Articles About the Pandemic Written?
7 Discussion
7.1 Internalization
7.2 Distribution
7.3 Explanation
7.4 Action
8 Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Disinformation in the Age of the Covid-19 Pandemic: How Does Belief in Fake News and Conspiracy Theories Affect Canadians’ Reactions to the Crisis?
1 Introduction
2 Methodology
2.1 Measurements and Analysis
2.2 Belief in Pandemic-Related Conspiracy Theories
2.3 Belief in Pandemic-Related Fake News
2.4 Sociodemographic Variables
2.5 News Habits
2.6 Attitudes Toward Social and Health Measures, Experts, Authorities, and the Media
3 What Proportion of the Canadian Respondents Believe Pandemic-Related Conspiracy Theories and Fake News?
3.1 Are Certain Socio-demographic Characteristics of the Respondents Associated with Belief in Pandemic-Related Conspiracy Theories and Fake News?
3.2 Are the News Habits of the Respondents Associated with Belief in Pandemic-Related Conspiracy Theories and Fake News?
3.3 Are the Social Attitudes of the Respondents Associated with Belief in Pandemic-Related Conspiracy Theories and Fake News?
4 Discussion
References
Chapter 8: Analysis of the Mexican Communication Plan to Control the Covid-19 Epidemic
1 Introduction
2 Frame of Reference
3 Method
3.1 Data Gathering
3.2 Analysis Categories
4 Results
4.1 Hugo López-Gatell
4.2 Mexican President, AMLO
5 Susana Distancia Spots
5.1 Constant Elements of the Spots per Month
5.2 Analysis
6 Conclusions
References
Chapter 9: Social Media Interactions in Mexico About the SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination Plan
1 Introduction
2 Theoretical Framework
3 Method
3.1 Study Categories
3.2 Data Search Strategy
3.3 The Study on Episode 1
3.4 The Study on Episode 2
3.5 The Study on Episode 3
4 The Analysis of the Results of Episode 1
4.1 Reflection About the Vaccination Plan in WhatsApp
4.2 Reflections About the Vaccination Plan in Facebook
4.3 Comments About the Senior Citizens’ Health in Both Social Networks
4.4 Emotional Comments on Both Virtual Spaces
4.5 Aggressive Comments in Both Social Media
4.6 Political Comments in Both Virtual Spaces
5 The Analysis of the Results of Episode 2
6 The Analysis of the Results of Episode 3
6.1 Lorenzo Meyer Cossío’s Wall
Reflection About the Vaccination Plan
Political-Aggressive Comments
6.2 Sergio Aguayo Quezada’s Wall
Emotional and Political-Aggressive Comments
7 Discussion and Analysis
7.1 Reflection Narrative
7.2 Emotional Narrative
7.3 The Authority Discourse Narrative
7.4 The Aggression Narrative
8 Conclusions
References
Chapter 10: Rethinking Our Interpretation Processes: Some Evidence
1 Introduction
2 The Sense and Sensemaking
3 From the Study to the Construction of Retrospective Sensemaking
4 Drawing the Information Crisis-Scape
References
Index
