Author(s)

Serge Banyongen

Department of Communication, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.

The COVID-19 pandemic will likely be remembered as profoundly transforming human relationships. Many people increased their use of social media during lockdown. Faced with the uncertainty of the situation, individuals turned to online interactions to better understand their reality. This has worsened a trend observed by researchers: the creation, spread, and reinforcement of fake news online. This misinformation not only created unfair competition with information from health authorities but also contributed to intensifying the crisis, reducing mitigation efforts, and affecting the resilience of populations (Mano, 2020). This study examines the impact of social media on exacerbating the COVID-19 crisis in Canada. Understanding this influence is crucial for evaluating the role of social media in handling health emergencies. We utilized network and content analysis techniques to illustrate that, beyond spreading fake news, an information warfare mentality drove the dissemination of disinformation during the pandemic. This dynamic significantly affected both collective and individual levels, particularly in shaping the knowledge system (a structured set of information used to detect or observe phenomena, translate them into perceived realities, and use these perceptions to make decisions) and influencing belief systems (orientations towards empirical data and other awareness) (Seitz et al., 2016). These findings suggest that the repercussions of this situation may endure within society.

Social Media, Infodemic, Trust, Infox, SARF, Fake News, Disinformation, BERT, VADER

Banyongen, S. (2024) Infodemic: Social Media and the Amplification of the COVID-19 Crisis in Canada. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 12, 250-278. doi: 10.4236/jss.2024.129015.