As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it’s getting harder to sort fact from fiction online after a deluge of new claims about the virus.
Does sunlight kill the coronavirus? Is 5G involved in all of this? Was the coronavirus created in a lab for use as a bioweapon?
Clearly, as the number of U.S. infections passes 1.2 million, the stakes are high when it comes to COVID-19 misinformation. That’s why Facebook teamed up with production company ATTN: for a series of digital literacy videos with the help of the MediaWise Voter Project.
[Click here to watch on Instagram]
The first video breaks down how to fact-check something you see about the coronavirus. Basically, think like a journalist — ask “who is saying it and do I trust them; what proof do they have; when was it published; and where else is this being reported and what do official sources say?”
Finally, think hard about whether you believe something you see about the coronavirus, or if you just want to believe it.
Alex Mahadevan is a senior multimedia reporter at MediaWise. He can be reached at amahadevan@poynter.org or on Twitter at @AlexMahadevan. Follow MediaWise on TikTok.
LOVE this, just wish like crazy there was an embed code, as I am teaching Media Literacy and would love to embed it into a PowerPoint I’m preparing on Misinformation: The Coronavirus Edition.