Section outline

    • week 3 - lecture: SOCIAL MEDIA AND GLOBAL HEALTH

       

       

       

      Aims and objectives: 

      By the end of this week, you will be able to: 

      • Differentiate between related concepts of fake news, alternative facts and post-truth; 

      • Describe the consequences of fake news for political engagement and trust in science; 

      • Appreciate the implications for global health challenges such as the anti-vaxx movement; 

      • Describe the role of social media in combatting but also disseminating fake news; 

      • Critique the impact that social media can have on health.  

       

      The role of the media - and especially social media – is playing an increasingly important role in global health. At the start of the pandemic, the World Health Information alerted the world to a new challenge, something it dubbed an ‘infodemic’. Social media can be a source for high quality information and critique but, increasingly, it is becoming a moshpit of inaccurate (misinformation) and deliberately false (disinformation) - ‘fake’ - news. The DG of the World Health Organisation, for example, is the subject of repeated attacks on DG of World Health Organisation on Twitter 

       

      This week, we will be focusing primarily on social media. We will look at on one particularly egregious example of how false research, amplified through the media, can spawn a damaging anti-vaccination movement. But we also reflect on the impact that social media is having on global mental health, particularly for the young.

      If you have access to Netflix please take 90m out of your day to watch the documentary The Social Dilemma - trailer below: 

      . 

      It's not required viewing as not all of you will have access to it but if you do, I would really recommend it. 


      week 3 - WEBINAR

      Webinar: Fact-checking the news  

       

      There is one very short news article and one reading that accompanies the webinar activity: 

      Daily Mirror - Bacon gives kids cancer https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bacon-gives-kids-cancer-374055

      Liu et al 2009 Cured meat, vegetables, and bean-curd foods in relation to childhood acute leukemia risk: A population based case-control study. BMC Cancer 9:15 


      week 3 TASKS

      Task 1: Presentation 

      In this short presentation, I introduce the week, focusing on social media. 


       If we were in class, I would usually start by showing this short video from The Simpsons – it's still one of my favourites! So, also have a watch of it. 

       

      Task 2: Reading  

      Chapter 2 of Bergstrom and West’s book ‘Calling Bullsh*t: The art of scepticism in a data-driven world. This first reading of the week is great! It’s from a new book by a couple of health experts who also specialise in – well – bullshit! This Chapter introduces you to the media, misinformation and disinformation. In the chapter, the authors quote Jordan Peele: “How we move forward in the age of information is going to be the difference between whether we survive or whether we become some kind of fucked-up dystopia”.  

       

      Please Make notes on Chapter 2, including what you make of Peele’s quote. What is Peele talking about? Do you agree? You can watch a clip of the Jordan Peele - Obama video clip from this link. As you watch it, ask yourself what are the implications of this technology. How can we combat fake news? Is Google our friend? 

       

      Task 3: Reading   

      I don’t often recommend that you read Wikipedia but the page on Andrew Wakefield is very informative. So please look at it now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield 

      This reading will give you some background information that is then covered in the following podcast.   

       

      Task 4: Podcast  

      The Misinformation Virus by Angela Saini - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000c9sm  

       

      In this 36m podcast, science journalist Angela Saini discusses pseudo-science, disinformation and social-media. At the start of the podcast she discusses the anti-vaxx movement. You can just listen to this section of the podcast if you wish. If you are interested, continue to listen to the rest of it.  

       

      In the podcast, the academic Heidi Larson is interviewed and talks about the issue of fake news. You can also read this article by her and Peter Piot, if you want to explore her ideas further. The question ‘what can health professionals do’ is asked in the podcast, and this may be a question you’d like to discuss in the webinar. The vaccine alliance GAVI is at the forefront of countering anti-vaxx messages and fake news about vaccinations. This article gives you some more information about the work GAVI is doing in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  

       

      Task 5: The health effects of social media: Reading by Richard Freed 

      In this final reading for this week, the author discusses the health effects that social media can have on you. More disturbingly, it describes how technology developers deliberately manipulate users (typically young people) by exploiting our psychological frailties (an issue we covered last week). I hope we can also discuss this reading in the webinar.  

       

      Task 6: Presentation 

      In this final summary presentation, I review the main points of the week’s materials. 


      READING

      Required reading: 

       

      • Bergstrom, C., and West, J. 2020 Calling Bullshit: The art of scepticism in a data-driven world. Ch 2, Medium, Message and Misinformation. 

      • Freed, R (2018) The Tech Industry's War on Kids: How Psychology is being used as a weapon against children. https://medium.com/@richardnfreed/the-tech-industrys-psychological-war-on-kids-c452870464ce - Note: for a rigorous academic study on the health impact of social media on children, see the Richards et al (2015) article in the additional readings. 

       

      Additional reading: 

      There is a forest of articles on the topics covered this week. Here are a few that you may wish to read if this topic has sparked your interest. 

       

       

       

      Fact checker sites: 
       

      • Channel 4's Fact Check is a useful resource for checking data presented in headline news stories 

      • Snopes.com is another well-established fact check site, focusing on fake news and urban legends. 

      • The NHS has a useful site called Behind the Headlines where it looks at the data behind news reporting of health issues. 


    • Week 3 forum discussion
    • Links to resources URL

      Use this link to take you to an external link with relevant information

    • Week three slides Folder
    • Readings for week 3 Folder