People who trust TV and social media as reliable Covid news sources are less informed

People who treat Facebook, other kinds of social media and television as reliable news sources about Covid-19 are less knowledgeable about the pandemic than others who follow more authoritative sources more closely, a new study has found.

Individuals who relied upon social media and TV were less likely to correctly identify facts about the coronavirus in research conducted in the earliest stage of the pandemic, researchers from Penn State College of Medicine discovered.

The researchers found a “clear relationship” between where participants got their news from and their knowledge of the rapidly-evolving pandemic, with those who put the most trust in government health websites were in turn the most likely to answer questions about Covid-19 correctly.

Conversely, people whose most trusted news source was either televised news or Facebook were less likely to give correct answers.

The team provided 5,948 adults in Pennsylvania with 15 statements about Covid-19 and asked whether they thought the statements were true or false, and how confident they were in their answer.

Respondents were also asked which news sources they were getting their pandemic information from and which sources they trusted the most.

Government websites were the most trusted of the news sources, followed by TV and health system communications.

“The rise of social media has changed the way people around the world keep up with current events, with studies showing that up to 66 per cent of Americans rely on social media for news,” said Dr Robert P Lennon, associate professor of family and community medicine at Penn State College of Medicine and one of the paper’s authors.

“This is worrying, as misinformation and misunderstanding about Covid-19 and how it spreads is likely to have fuelled the pandemic, whose death toll now surpasses 2.5m worldwide.”

The study, published in journal Current Medical Research & Opinion, highlights how guidance around wearing masks, washing hands and how to effectively maintain social distancing are only effective if they are fully understood, Dr Lennon said.

“Effective communication is a critical element of successfully managing a pandemic response, as for the disease spread to be contained, the public must comply with public health recommendations,” he added.

“The first step in compliance is an understanding of those recommendations, so it is vital that health communicators consider how the public get their information and monitor these venues to correct misinformation when it appears.”