Social Media
Problem
Social media is the main source of disinformation that spreads very easily. Once a disease epidemic captures the public's imagination,
a torrent of half-boiled suggestions, sketchy solutions and unfounded hypotheses that spread while nervous people
try to grasp a potential safety problem frequently muffles clear guidelines from medical professionals.
Why?
People are desperate for knowledge, eager for clarity, and that causes uncertainty among citizens where
there is a shortage of consensus-oriented facts and where it is disputed in general.
The issue has contributed to mass media reporting, experts claim. Reporters and editors with little science
or public health experience have been reassigned at several major news organizations to cover the emerging pandemic
and are struggling to get up to speed with complicated clinical jargon, methodologies, and studies, and then recognize
a list of reliable sources, as well as veterans.
Solution
Public health communicators have to be viewed as reliable, open and trustworthy in order to be successful,
particularly during a crisis. Check it out before posting! Take the extra few seconds to browse at the source, or go read the entire article and make sure the description
correctly represents the material and the site's credibility.
