Higher education has a role in curbing disinformation

Higher education communication experts can help to curb misinformation through lectures and conferences, but the responsibility to counter false information has to be shared by the government, influencers, opinion-shapers, the media and the public. In the time of COVID-19, this is critical to curb harmful false health information and vaccine hesitancy.

This is according to Dr Ifeoma Theresa Amobi, a senior lecturer in mass communication at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

She was recently a speaker at the Africa Health Agenda International Conference during March at which health misinformation was discussed.

False health information, including information on COVID-19, can lead to dangerous decisions, especially when people are not news- or media-literate.

Communication experts at the event in March pointed out that the disinformation and misinformation around COVID-19 was significant and could not be tackled by one sector alone.

Disinformation is often seen as false information created with the aim to deceive, whereas misinformation is considered information which is not factual because of poor verification. In both instances, the outcome is fake news.

In a subsequent interview, Amobi told University World News that some academics and scientists are making an effort to deconstruct the myths about COVID-19, though their efforts have not reached critical mass and some experts, themselves, spread false information on occasion.

“Disinformation about COVID-19 and vaccine is so rife in the public domain … we have several examples. For instance: ‘China released the virus to reduce Africa’s population’; ‘COVID-19 is caused by 5G networks’; ‘African blood is so strong that the virus cannot kill Africans’; ‘COVID-19 is a hoax’, some academics and scientists arguing that, if COVID-19 were existent, ‘people would be dropping dead in the streets or market places’; ‘the vaccine is dangerous and it’s killing people’, and ‘the vaccine causes infertility in women’,” she explained.

A crisis of trust

Amobi said African media must work very hard to earn public trust.

“In a recent study I conducted with some of my colleagues, we found that there is a relatively low number of Nigerians who trust information reported by the media on COVID-19, at 39.9%.”

She added that only 28% of Nigerians trusted the government’s information on COVID, but nearly three-quarters of people, at 74.4% trusted health experts.

She said that African journalists, as key players in the communication industry who should help to tackle disinformation and give evidence-based information, ought to ask hard questions about information to unravel the truth and not simply share what is told to them by governments.

Everyone should tackle infodemic

Higher learning institutions have involved academics in communicating with the public through research, workshops, conferences, seminars and televised interviews as guest speakers by discussing the misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine to empower the masses and help dissolve vaccine hesitancy.

To move from traditional media communication to social behaviour change communication resulting in knowledge as a way of tackling misinformation, attitude and practice, Amobi explained that stakeholders should engage in participatory communication in which the target audience actually participates in determining the goal of communication.

Higher education can help to curb misinformation consistently through lectures and conferences in which fact-checkers from the media and resourceful educators can be invited to speak to students on the need for truthfulness and relevance to prevent the dangers of misinformation.

To combat misinformation through effective communication in Nigeria, or any African country, Amobi said that governments can make public service announcements, have daily presidential briefings to educate the public about COVID-19 and its realities, emphasise containment policies and place adverts on radio and TV with messaging for mass audiences.