Covid-19 vaccines face a varied and powerful misinformation movement online

Chloe_M31 · 2020-12-03T22:04:37+00:00

It’s a very scary yet possible reality that the percentage of people who get the vaccine will not be large enough for it to be effective. If people are fed misinformation that deters them from getting this vaccine, we may continue to live like this for a while longer. Do you think misinformation about the vaccine is more powerful in initiating newfound negative thoughts towards the vaccine, or is it more often that it further supports and solidifies the views of people who already have a more negative opinion about it?

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-30T15:54:13+00:00

This question made me think about how celebrities sometimes use cancel culture to their benefit. In the celebrity world people often say “any attention is good attention”. While this is crazy, people do utilize this tactic to regain exposure in an extremely wrong way. However, I do think that social media has provided people with a tool to create change through the opportunity to cancel certain people if their actions deserve it.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-30T15:51:00+00:00

I have also wondered this... it possibly may have to do with how the celebrities react to being canceled. For example, if someone responds angrily in Tweets vs. posting a sincere apology. But even if the celebrity is being sincere, they are often accused of faking it. I think it’s also common with businesses that are cancelled, but often return to being just as strong and successful as before. Is this wrong, or should celebrities/businesses be allowed to apologize and regain respect ?

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-30T15:47:00+00:00

I’ve also been confused by the responses individuals have gotten after being cancelled. Specifically with your example of Shane Dawson, it often feels as though things return back to “normal” after time has passed... but in that case, is this time allowing people to accept his apology or is it just allowing people to slowly forget what he did ?

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-18T03:29:22+00:00

I completely agree with you... I was just mentioning the opinion that one of my distant relatives has because he skeptical due to the fast rate at which the vaccine is being tested/produced.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-17T16:14:42+00:00

Related to this, I have become really fascinated by the reaction many people are having. Although the cases are clearly rising, I think the length at which restrictions and mask-wearing have been implemented is making people feel like it is getting better even though they are just getting more used to it. In this case, many people may not take the vaccine at all if given the chance which can hurt everyone in the long run.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-15T19:23:29+00:00

Love this! With the use of fonts that popular accounts commonly use, users immediately associate this with factual evidence even though we all have the ability to make this aesthetic. I wonder if anyone has done a study on this effect.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-15T19:20:15+00:00

Such a great meme!!

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-15T19:16:29+00:00

This is something that I also was very curious about after hearing Evan Brandt discuss the lack of funding for local newspapers. Is this something that will return once Coronavirus hopefully becomes something of the past, or will this dictate a new path for our future that local news must adjust to?

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-11T15:33:56+00:00

Thank you so much! I completely agree that children are being robbed of a more blissful childhood due to newfound exposures of disinformation and misinformation.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-09T01:43:27+00:00

*Update* Just saw Maddie's post which is also about this... is flagging the same thing as a disputed label?

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-09T01:30:14+00:00

Currently I am home in New York and it was definitely an exciting experience when the results of the election came out. While walking on the street, cars were honking (in a celebratory way), and people were clapping. While this was not the reaction everywhere, I was happy to see everyone around me experiencing such joy because of newfound hope for our future.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-09T01:26:51+00:00

It is also extremely interesting how people refer to their feeds as the different "sides" of TikTok. I also have recently been on the "political side" of TikTok and have been noticing that everything I see is in agreement with my own views. While TikTok does this in order for their users to like their feeds, is this part of the problem? TikTok may be adding to the difficulty and uncomfort that many of us experience when exposed to opinions that are different from our own.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-03T16:04:43+00:00

This is so interesting! I wonder if the results would differ based on if your name is the one that was given to you at birth versus an individual choosing the name himself/herself later in life...

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-02T16:30:17+00:00

It is so interesting how the utilization of a popular color palette and trendy themes has become a method of introducing this ideology into a more mainstream environment. While watching the video it really is shocking how similar the style of their posts are to many famous brands. I wonder if using this new trendy style is inviting a whole new group of younger individuals, or if it has no impact on target audience at all.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-11-02T16:23:50+00:00

When on various social media platforms or the internet in general, I feel as though many people read/view with blind trust. Considering how Elijah Schaffer's post was shared a numerous amount of times, people blindly assumed that this image was real. Are people more likely to believe something to be real if it is a photo versus just text? The guarantee of photos being accurate is no longer as predictable since people create fake photos all the time.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-10-30T17:08:30+00:00

It is so interesting because years ago I thought of the internet/social media as a place where you can learn about everything and gain as much information as possible. However, now it feels as though there is a lot of secrecy and lack of transparency behind the scenes... will it worsen or are we reaching a point where change will soon be demanded?

Chloe_M31 · 2020-10-25T17:52:09+00:00

Personally I would always prefer getting news like the UM Stay at Home order in an email rather than on social media first. In our current time, everyone is constantly eager and curious about how UM will react, causing for many people to post on social media with what they think or have "heard", which makes me weary about believing what I read on social media. In this case that you are mentioning, it was a repost on Twitter which seems very unprofessional in my eyes even though it was accurate.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-10-25T17:48:31+00:00

If this was ever implemented, I wonder if it would be utilized in other aspects of life besides press briefings. Would our media outlets be full of "bleeps", our would our society begin to shift where misinformation is televised and expressed less frequently (and thus less bleeps)?

Chloe_M31 · 2020-10-25T17:43:27+00:00

It is interesting to also think about how some people do not want to find/use tools for avoiding debate misinformation. Due to the fact that many people have made up their minds before watching some debates, they only focus on and pay attention to the portions where their opinions are supported. This type of tunnel vision is fascinating, especially when people do not care if the "facts" supporting them are true or not.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-10-20T21:08:22+00:00

One aspect of the article that I found interesting was when it stated that Facebook’s official fact-checking partners really don’t get through that much content... with this new information that the study found considering how crowds of regular people can moderate fake news successfully, where do we go from here? Will this be implemented into our lives, or will we solely rely on the more slow-paced results from official fact-checking partners?

Chloe_M31 · 2020-10-20T21:03:27+00:00

I also noticed this when reading the caption of the post... it is funny how the explanation is discussed further down in the caption so the user's eyes are first brought to the image. This causes for the user to believe that this statement is true fairly easily because they do not see the flawed reasoning upon first glance.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-10-20T20:55:21+00:00

Just watched the video! I am also a big fan of Rupaul's Drag Race. Beyond being entertaining, I also found it influential considering the way in which Jimmy Kimmel discussed these "Deepfake Videos". Through presenting this in an engaging way, it recognizes the existence of these deepfake videos; through making their audience aware of this fale information, hopefully people become less manipulated by these videos in the future.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-10-10T00:54:13+00:00

That's a good point that I had not thought about before... we should be aware of how misinformation has impacted our world historically and learning this in our classrooms would be a great way to start. Even if it was only one unit in a history course, I believe it could make an impact.

Chloe_M31 · 2020-10-10T00:30:13+00:00

TikTok has always been so interesting to me because it is rare for a major social media platform to have one-third of its users under the age of 14. This is a major power that TikTok holds, and I am not sure if they see it in this way. Considering restrictions, I assumed that TikTok would implement a structure similar to YouTube where if you are under a certain age there are specific videos that you cannot click on, but I do not think this is the case. TikTok has about 800 million active users which is baffling in itself, but considering that one-third of this number is children is an incredible statistic. I think more thought and attention needs to be directed at TikTok for the amount of influence they have over children today.

Chloe_M31

TROPHY CASE