Information illiteracy and the information epidemic in light of the Corona pandemic Causes and ways to curb this epidemic

El-Warikat, Asmaa

doi:10.21608/aafu.2021.179218

Information illiteracy and the information epidemic in light of the Corona pandemic Causes and ways to curb this epidemic

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Asmaa El-Warikat

10.21608/aafu.2021.179218

Abstract

The wide spread of social media led to an increase in sharing information and news. Health organizations are depending more on social media in sharing information and news. Corona virus (Covid-19) was declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) and this lead an increase in the information and news load on the virus. This led to the existence of fake news and disinformation. WHO has declared as well the infodemic in concordance with the pandemic because of the huge amount of fake news accompanied the spread of Corona virus. This study aims to investigate the infodemic and the role of information literacy in avoiding the infodemic. The researcher used content analysis of research available on the topic, the study presented examples on the fake news and disinformation on the topic. At the end the researcher presented a group of skills to identify fake news and recommendations.

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