Misinformation about health, diets, disease, and vaccines must be combated in an interest to public health – but fear, follower base, and clickbait in media drive fear and #FakeNews. As DeMers shared, 59% of people will share an article (online) without even reading it (2016).
“Fake, misleading and over-interpreted health news in social media is the potential threat for public health; Top links related to common diseases in 40% cases contained misinformation and were shared 451 272 times in the period 2012–2017” (Waszak, Kasprzycka-Waszak & Kubanek, 2018).
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DeMers, J. (2016). 59 Percent Of You Will Share This Article Without Even Reading It. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/08/08/59-percent-of-you-will-share-this-article-without-even-reading-it/#ffb51262a648
Waszak, P.M., Kasprzycka-Waszak, W. & Kubanek, A. (2018). The spread of medical fake news in social media – The pilot quantitative study. Retrieved from: https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.lib.purdue.edu/science/article/pii/S2211883718300881