Necropolítica e vidas não passíveis de luto: a (re)produção midiática do inimigo / Necropolítica y vidas sin duelo: la (re)producción mediática del enemigo / Necropolitics and non-mourning lives: the enemy's media (re)production

RESUMO. Este artigo visa discutir a produção da personagem 'envolvido' pela narrativa midiática e seus efeitos na legitimação da necropolítica brasileira. Para tanto, faz uso das contribuições teóricas de Cecília Coimbra, Achille Mbembe e Judith Butler para analisar as repercussões das fake News nas redes sociais direcionadas ao jovem Marcos Vinícius da Silva, morto na favela da Maré, no Rio de Janeiro, quando ia para a escola. A maneira como esse assassinato foi tratado nas redes sociais oferece elementos para a compreensão da produção e ratificação da personagem 'envolvido' na justificação de mortes de pessoas que participaram (ou não) de situações ilícitas, colocando-os como sujeitos matáveis na atual política de gestão da morte. As considerações finais do trabalho assinalam a urgência de uma postura crítica por parte da mídia e um engajamento teórico-prático que desnaturalize a necropolítica e as relações de poder cada vez mais recrudescidas pela atual conjuntura política no Brasil.

RESUMEN. Este artículo analiza la producción del personaje 'involucrado' en la narrativa de los medios y sus efectos sobre la legitimación de la necropolítica brasileña. Para ello, utilizo las contribuciones teóricas de Cecilia Coimbra, Achille Mbembe y Judith Butler para analizar las repercusiones de las noticias falsas en las redes sociales dirigidas al joven Marcos Vinícius da Silva, quien murió en la favela Maré en Río de Janeiro mientras se dirigía a la escuela. La forma en que se trató este asesinato en las redes sociales, ofrece elementos para comprender la producción y la ratificación del personaje 'involucrado' en la justificación de la muerte de personas que participaron (o no) en situaciones ilícitas, ubicándolas como sujetos matables en la política actual de manejo de la muerte. Las consideraciones finales del trabajo apuntan a la urgencia de una actitud crítica por parte de los medios y un compromiso teórico-práctico que desnaturalice las relaciones cada vez más necropolíticas y de poder en Brasil.

ABSTRACT. This article discusses the production of the character 'involved' by the media narrative and its effects on the legitimation of the Brazilian necropolitics. To this end, we used the theoretical contributions by Cecília Coimbra, Achille Mbembe and Judith Butler to analyze the repercussions of fake news on social media directed against the young boy Marcos Vinícius da Silva, who was killed in the favela of Maré in Rio de Janeiro while on his way to school. The way this murder was addressed on social networks offers elements for understanding the production and ratification of the character 'involved' in justifying the deaths of people who participated or not in illicit situations, placing them as killable subjects in the current death management policy. The final considerations of the work point to the urgency of a critical approach by the media and a theoretical-practical engagement that denaturalizes necropolitics and the power relations increasingly intensified by the current political situation in Brazil.

The global effectiveness of fact-checking: Evidence from simultaneous experiments in Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

The spread of misinformation is a global phenomenon, with implications for elections, state-sanctioned violence, and health outcomes. Yet, even though scholars have investigated the capacity of fact-checking to reduce belief in misinformation, little evidence exists on the global effectiveness of this approach. We describe fact-checking experiments conducted simultaneously in Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, in which we studied whether fact-checking can durably reduce belief in misinformation. In total, we evaluated 22 fact-checks, including two that were tested in all four countries. Fact-checking reduced belief in misinformation, with most effects still apparent more than 2 wk later. A meta-analytic procedure indicates that fact-checks reduced belief in misinformation by at least 0.59 points on a 5-point scale. Exposure to misinformation, however, only increased false beliefs by less than 0.07 points on the same scale. Across continents, fact-checks reduce belief in misinformation, often durably so.

Evaluating YouTube Videos on Hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation as a Resource for Patients.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: This study evaluated the quality and comprehensiveness of YouTube videos on hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HNS) for patients. This study also investigated the relationship between video content, video metrics, and popularity. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: We identified 150 videos using three search terms: "inspire sleep apnea," "hypoglossal nerve stimulation," and "upper airway stimulation." Videos that were unrelated to the use of HNS for obstructive sleep apnea in adults, operating room recordings, lectures for medical professionals, non-English, or non-audio were excluded. Video quality and comprehensiveness were assessed using modified DISCERN criterion (range: 5-25) and novel content criterion (range: 0-12), respectively. Secondary outcomes included video metrics (views, likes, dislikes, comments, and days since upload) and Video Power Index to measure popularity. Outcomes were stratified by video uploader source (medical institutions, medical companies, individual users, other). RESULTS: Users searched YouTube for "inspire sleep apnea" 2.48 times more in 2020 than in 2018. We identified 67 videos for review, with the majority coming from medical institutions (70.2%). Overall, the average-modified DISCERN (13.65 ± 4.88) and novel content (3.87 ± 2.09) scores were low and did not differ between medical institutions or other uploader sources. Higher quality and more comprehensive video content did not correlate with popularity. CONCLUSION: Overall quality and comprehensiveness of information of HNS YouTube videos was low. Given the high demand for information on HNS, there is opportunity for medical institutions to implement new strategies to improve both video content and visibility to patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: NA Laryngoscope, 131:E2827-E2832, 2021.

Exposure to COVID-19-Related Information and its Association With Mental Health Problems in Thailand: Nationwide, Cross-sectional Survey Study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on both the physical and mental health of individuals worldwide. Evidence regarding the association between mental health problems and information exposure among Thai citizens during the COVID-19 outbreak is limited. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the relationship between information exposure and mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand. METHODS: Between April 21 and May 4, 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional, nationwide online survey of the general population in Thailand. We categorized the duration of exposure to COVID-19-related information as follows: <1 h/day (reference group), 1-2 h/day, and ≥3 h/day. Mental health outcomes were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale, the Perceived Stress Scale-10, and the Insomnia Severity Index for symptoms of depression, anxiety, perceived stress, and insomnia, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between information exposure and the risk of developing the aforementioned symptoms. An ancillary analysis using multivariable multinomial logistic regression models was also conducted to assess the possible dose-response relationship across the severity strata of mental health problems. RESULTS: Of the 4322 eligible participants, 4004 (92.6%) completed the online survey. Of them, 1481 (37.0%), 1644 (41.1%), and 879 (22.0%) participants were exposed to COVID-19-related information for less than 1 hour per day, 1 to 2 hours per day, or 3 or more hours per day, respectively. The major source of information related to the COVID-19 pandemic was social media (95.3%), followed by traditional media (68.7%) and family members (34.9%). Those exposed to information for 3 or more hours per day had a higher risk of developing symptoms of depression (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.35, 95% CI 1.03-1.76; P=.03), anxiety (adjusted OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.43-2.46; P<.001), and insomnia (adjusted OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.17-1.97; P=.001) than people exposed to information for less than 1 hour per day. Meanwhile, people exposed to information for 1 to 2 hours per day were only at risk of developing symptoms of anxiety (adjusted OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.08-1.69; P=.008). However, no association was found between information exposure and the risk of perceived stress. In the ancillary analysis, a dose-response relationship was observed between information exposure of 3 or more hours per day and the severity of mental health problems. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that social media is the main source of COVID-19-related information. Moreover, people who are exposed to information for 3 or more hours per day are more likely to develop psychological problems, including depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Longitudinal studies investigating the long-term effects of COVID-19-related information exposure on mental health are warranted.

Understanding Concerns, Sentiments, and Disparities Among Population Groups During the COVID-19 Pandemic Via Twitter Data Mining: Large-scale Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, its far-reaching impacts have been witnessed globally across all aspects of human life, such as health, economy, politics, and education. Such widely penetrating impacts cast significant and profound burdens on all population groups, incurring varied concerns and sentiments among them. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify the concerns, sentiments, and disparities of various population groups during the COVID-19 pandemic through a cross-sectional study conducted via large-scale Twitter data mining infoveillance. METHODS: This study consisted of three steps: first, tweets posted during the pandemic were collected and preprocessed on a large scale; second, the key population attributes, concerns, sentiments, and emotions were extracted via a collection of natural language processing procedures; third, multiple analyses were conducted to reveal concerns, sentiments, and disparities among population groups during the pandemic. Overall, this study implemented a quick, effective, and economical approach for analyzing population-level disparities during a public health event. The source code developed in this study was released for free public use at GitHub. RESULTS: A total of 1,015,655 original English tweets posted from August 7 to 12, 2020, were acquired and analyzed to obtain the following results. Organizations were significantly more concerned about COVID-19 (odds ratio [OR] 3.48, 95% CI 3.39-3.58) and expressed more fear and depression emotions than individuals. Females were less concerned about COVID-19 (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.71-0.75) and expressed less fear and depression emotions than males. Among all age groups (ie, ≤18, 19-29, 30-39, and ≥40 years of age), the attention ORs of COVID-19 fear and depression increased significantly with age. It is worth noting that not all females paid less attention to COVID-19 than males. In the age group of 40 years or older, females were more concerned than males, especially regarding the economic and education topics. In addition, males 40 years or older and 18 years or younger were the least positive. Lastly, in all sentiment analyses, the sentiment polarities regarding political topics were always the lowest among the five topics of concern across all population groups. CONCLUSIONS: Through large-scale Twitter data mining, this study revealed that meaningful differences regarding concerns and sentiments about COVID-19-related topics existed among population groups during the study period. Therefore, specialized and varied attention and support are needed for different population groups. In addition, the efficient analysis method implemented by our publicly released code can be utilized to dynamically track the evolution of each population group during the pandemic or any other major event for better informed public health research and interventions.

YouTube as a source of information on fibromyalgia.

AIM: The internet has gained popularity as a health information source for patients. YouTube is one of the biggest platforms used worldwide. Several studies showed that quality of the information on YouTube videos for patient information is poor. This study aimed to evaluate the content and quality of YouTube videos, as a source of patient information for fibromyalgia (FM). METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a YouTube search with the keyword "fibromyalgia" was performed, and the first 200 videos were listed according to relevancy. Advertisements, duplicate videos, videos in languages other than English, and videos without audio were excluded. Video features (number of "likes", "dislikes", views, length of video), and source of upload were recorded. DISCERN and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria were used for quality analysis. Video quality was assessed according to the source of upload and video features. The correlation analysis was performed between video features, JAMA, and DISCERN scores. RESULTS: A total number of 102 videos were analyzed. The most common source of upload was physicians and majority of the content (55.8%) was about symptoms and treatment. Mean DISCERN and JAMA scores were 35.7 and 2.2, respectively. These scores were highest in videos uploaded by physicians (52.7 and 2.6, respectively). There is a positive correlation between the duration of the video, DISCERN, and JAMA scores. CONCLUSION: The majority of YouTube content has poor quality. Health professionals should be aware of the importance of health-related information on YouTube and provide high-quality accurate and up-to-date content.

Tweets by People With Arthritis During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content and Sentiment Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Emerging evidence suggests that people with arthritis are reporting increased physical pain and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, Twitter's daily usage has surged by 23% throughout the pandemic period, presenting a unique opportunity to assess the content and sentiment of tweets. Individuals with arthritis use Twitter to communicate with peers, and to receive up-to-date information from health professionals and services about novel therapies and management techniques. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research was to identify proxy topics of importance for individuals with arthritis during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore the emotional context of tweets by people with arthritis during the early phase of the pandemic. METHODS: From March 20 to April 20, 2020, publicly available tweets posted in English and with hashtag combinations related to arthritis and COVID-19 were extracted retrospectively from Twitter. Content analysis was used to identify common themes within tweets, and sentiment analysis was used to examine positive and negative emotions in themes to understand the COVID-19 experiences of people with arthritis. RESULTS: In total, 149 tweets were analyzed. The majority of tweeters were female and were from the United States. Tweeters reported a range of arthritis conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and psoriatic arthritis. Seven themes were identified: health care experiences, personal stories, links to relevant blogs, discussion of arthritis-related symptoms, advice sharing, messages of positivity, and stay-at-home messaging. Sentiment analysis demonstrated marked anxiety around medication shortages, increased physical symptom burden, and strong desire for trustworthy information and emotional connection. CONCLUSIONS: Tweets by people with arthritis highlight the multitude of concurrent concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding these concerns, which include heightened physical and psychological symptoms in the context of treatment misinformation, may assist clinicians to provide person-centered care during this time of great health uncertainty.

Media Exposure and Anxiety during COVID-19: The Mediation Effect of Media Vicarious Traumatization.

The rapid spread and high death rates of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in massive panic and anxiety all over the world. People rely heavily on media for information-seeking during the period of social isolation. This study aimed to explore the relationship between media exposure and anxiety, and highlighted the underlying mechanisms mediated by the media vicarious traumatization effect. A total of 1118 Chinese citizens participated in the online survey, who were from 30 provinces in mainland China. Results showed that all four types of media (official media, commercial media, social media, and overseas media) cause vicarious traumatization to their audiences to different degrees. It was also found that the impact of media exposure on anxiety was mediated by media vicarious traumatization: there were full mediation effects for commercial media exposure and overseas media exposure, while there were indirect-only mediation effects for official media exposure and social media exposure. Audiences staying in cities with a relatively severe pandemic were more susceptible to the vicarious traumatization caused by commercial media compared to those staying in Hubei. This study expanded the concept and application of vicarious traumatization to the mediated context, and the findings provided insightful advice to media practitioners in the face of major crisis.

Framework for Managing the COVID-19 Infodemic: Methods and Results of an Online, Crowdsourced WHO Technical Consultation.

BACKGROUND: An infodemic is an overabundance of information-some accurate and some not-that occurs during an epidemic. In a similar manner to an epidemic, it spreads between humans via digital and physical information systems. It makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it. OBJECTIVE: A World Health Organization (WHO) technical consultation on responding to the infodemic related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was held, entirely online, to crowdsource suggested actions for a framework for infodemic management. METHODS: A group of policy makers, public health professionals, researchers, students, and other concerned stakeholders was joined by representatives of the media, social media platforms, various private sector organizations, and civil society to suggest and discuss actions for all parts of society, and multiple related professional and scientific disciplines, methods, and technologies. A total of 594 ideas for actions were crowdsourced online during the discussions and consolidated into suggestions for an infodemic management framework. RESULTS: The analysis team distilled the suggestions into a set of 50 proposed actions for a framework for managing infodemics in health emergencies. The consultation revealed six policy implications to consider. First, interventions and messages must be based on science and evidence, and must reach citizens and enable them to make informed decisions on how to protect themselves and their communities in a health emergency. Second, knowledge should be translated into actionable behavior-change messages, presented in ways that are understood by and accessible to all individuals in all parts of all societies. Third, governments should reach out to key communities to ensure their concerns and information needs are understood, tailoring advice and messages to address the audiences they represent. Fourth, to strengthen the analysis and amplification of information impact, strategic partnerships should be formed across all sectors, including but not limited to the social media and technology sectors, academia, and civil society. Fifth, health authorities should ensure that these actions are informed by reliable information that helps them understand the circulating narratives and changes in the flow of information, questions, and misinformation in communities. Sixth, following experiences to date in responding to the COVID-19 infodemic and the lessons from other disease outbreaks, infodemic management approaches should be further developed to support preparedness and response, and to inform risk mitigation, and be enhanced through data science and sociobehavioral and other research. CONCLUSIONS: The first version of this framework proposes five action areas in which WHO Member States and actors within society can apply, according to their mandate, an infodemic management approach adapted to national contexts and practices. Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the related infodemic require swift, regular, systematic, and coordinated action from multiple sectors of society and government. It remains crucial that we promote trusted information and fight misinformation, thereby helping save lives.

How to Fight an Infodemic: The Four Pillars of Infodemic Management.

In this issue of the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the World Health Organization (WHO) is presenting a framework for managing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infodemic. Infodemiology is now acknowledged by public health organizations and the WHO as an important emerging scientific field and critical area of practice during a pandemic. From the perspective of being the first "infodemiologist" who originally coined the term almost two decades ago, I am positing four pillars of infodemic management: (1) information monitoring (infoveillance); (2) building eHealth Literacy and science literacy capacity; (3) encouraging knowledge refinement and quality improvement processes such as fact checking and peer-review; and (4) accurate and timely knowledge translation, minimizing distorting factors such as political or commercial influences. In the current COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations has advocated that facts and science should be promoted and that these constitute the antidote to the current infodemic. This is in stark contrast to the realities of infodemic mismanagement and misguided upstream filtering, where social media platforms such as Twitter have advertising policies that sideline science organizations and science publishers, treating peer-reviewed science as "inappropriate content."

Racial and Ethnic Digital Divides in Posting COVID-19 Content on Social Media Among US Adults: Secondary Survey Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Public health surveillance experts are leveraging user-generated content on social media to track the spread and effects of COVID-19. However, racial and ethnic digital divides, which are disparities among people who have internet access and post on social media, can bias inferences. This bias is particularly problematic in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic because due to structural inequalities, members of racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately vulnerable to contracting the virus and to the deleterious economic and social effects from mitigation efforts. Further, important demographic intersections with race and ethnicity, such as gender and age, are rarely investigated in work characterizing social media users; however, they reflect additional axes of inequality shaping differential exposure to COVID-19 and its effects. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to characterize how the race and ethnicity of US adults are associated with their odds of posting COVID-19 content on social media and how gender and age modify these odds. METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis of a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center from March 19 to 24, 2020, using a national probability sample (N=10,510). Respondents were recruited from an online panel, where panelists without an internet-enabled device were given one to keep at no cost. The binary dependent variable was responses to an item asking whether respondents "used social media to share or post information about the coronavirus." We used survey-weighted logistic regressions to estimate the odds of responding in the affirmative based on the race and ethnicity of respondents (white, black, Latino, other race/ethnicity), adjusted for covariates measuring sociodemographic background and COVID-19 experiences. We examined how gender (female, male) and age (18 to 30 years, 31 to 50 years, 51 to 64 years, and 65 years and older) intersected with race and ethnicity by estimating interactions. RESULTS: Respondents who identified as black (odds ratio [OR] 1.29, 95% CI 1.02-1.64; P=.03), Latino (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.36-2.04; P<.001), or other races/ethnicities (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.02-1.72; P=.03) had higher odds than respondents who identified as white of reporting that they posted COVID-19 content on social media. Women had higher odds of posting than men regardless of race and ethnicity (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.39-1.80; P<.001). Among men, respondents who identified as black, Latino, or members of other races/ethnicities were significantly more likely to post than respondents who identified as white. Older adults (65 years or older) had significantly lower odds (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.57-0.94; P=.01) of posting compared to younger adults (18-29 years), particularly among those identifying as other races/ethnicities. Latino respondents were the most likely to report posting across all age groups. CONCLUSIONS: In the United States, members of racial and ethnic minority groups are most likely to contribute to COVID-19 content on social media, particularly among groups traditionally less likely to use social media (older adults and men). The next step is to ensure that data collection procedures capture this diversity by encompassing a breadth of search criteria and social media platforms.

Chinese Public's Attention to the COVID-19 Epidemic on Social Media: Observational Descriptive Study.

BACKGROUND: Since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic in China in December 2019, information and discussions about COVID-19 have spread rapidly on the internet and have quickly become the focus of worldwide attention, especially on social media. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate and analyze the public's attention to events related to COVID-19 in China at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic (December 31, 2019, to February 20, 2020) through the Sina Microblog hot search list. METHODS: We collected topics related to the COVID-19 epidemic on the Sina Microblog hot search list from December 31, 2019, to February 20, 2020, and described the trend of public attention on COVID-19 epidemic-related topics. ROST Content Mining System version 6.0 was used to analyze the collected text for word segmentation, word frequency, and sentiment analysis. We further described the hot topic keywords and sentiment trends of public attention. We used VOSviewer to implement a visual cluster analysis of hot keywords and build a social network of public opinion content. RESULTS: The study has four main findings. First, we analyzed the changing trend of the public's attention to the COVID-19 epidemic, which can be divided into three stages. Second, the hot topic keywords of public attention at each stage were slightly different. Third, the emotional tendency of the public toward the COVID-19 epidemic-related hot topics changed from negative to neutral, with negative emotions weakening and positive emotions increasing as a whole. Fourth, we divided the COVID-19 topics with the most public concern into five categories: the situation of the new cases of COVID-19 and its impact, frontline reporting of the epidemic and the measures of prevention and control, expert interpretation and discussion on the source of infection, medical services on the frontline of the epidemic, and focus on the worldwide epidemic and the search for suspected cases. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that social media (eg, Sina Microblog) can be used to measure public attention toward public health emergencies. During the epidemic of the novel coronavirus, a large amount of information about the COVID-19 epidemic was disseminated on Sina Microblog and received widespread public attention. We have learned about the hotspots of public concern regarding the COVID-19 epidemic. These findings can help the government and health departments better communicate with the public on health and translate public health needs into practice to create targeted measures to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.

Impact of Online Information on Self-Isolation Intention During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, governments issued movement restrictions and placed areas into quarantine to combat the spread of the disease. In addition, individuals were encouraged to adopt personal health measures such as social isolation. Information regarding the disease and recommended avoidance measures were distributed through a variety of channels including social media, news websites, and emails. Previous research suggests that the vast amount of available information can be confusing, potentially resulting in overconcern and information overload. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the impact of online information on the individual-level intention to voluntarily self-isolate during the pandemic. Using the protection-motivation theory as a framework, we propose a model outlining the effects of cyberchondria and information overload on individuals' perceptions and motivations. METHODS: To test the proposed model, we collected data with an online survey (N=225) and analyzed it using partial least square-structural equation modeling. The effects of social media and living situation were tested through multigroup analysis. RESULTS: Cyberchondria and information overload had a significant impact on individuals' threat and coping perceptions, and through them on self-isolation intention. Among the appraisal constructs, perceived severity (P=.002) and self-efficacy (P=.003) positively impacted self-isolation intention, while response cost (P<.001) affected the intention negatively. Cyberchondria (P=.003) and information overload (P=.003) indirectly affected self-isolation intention through the aforementioned perceptions. Using social media as an information source increased both cyberchondria and information overload. No differences in perceptions were found between people living alone and those living with their families. CONCLUSIONS: During COVID-19, frequent use of social media contributed to information overload and overconcern among individuals. To boost individuals' motivation to adopt preventive measures such as self-isolation, actions should focus on lowering individuals' perceived response costs in addition to informing them about the severity of the situation.

The effectiveness of short-format refutational fact-checks.

Fact-checking has become an important feature of the modern media landscape. However, it is unclear what the most effective format of fact-checks is. Some have argued that simple retractions that repeat a false claim and tag it as false may backfire because they boost the claim's familiarity. More detailed refutations may provide a more promising approach, but may not be feasible under the severe space constraints associated with social-media communication. In two experiments, we tested whether (1) simple 'false-tag' retractions can indeed be ineffective or harmful; and (2) short-format (140-character) refutations are more effective than simple retractions. Regarding (1), simple retractions reduced belief in false claims, and we found no evidence for a familiarity-driven backfire effect. Regarding (2), short-format refutations were found to be more effective than simple retractions after a 1-week delay but not a one-day delay. At both delays, however, they were associated with reduced misinformation-congruent reasoning.

Tobacco Use Behaviors, Attitudes, and Demographic Characteristics of Tobacco Opinion Leaders and Their Followers: Twitter Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco-related content on social media is generated and propagated by opinion leaders on the Web who disseminate messages to others in their network, including followers, who then continue to spread the information. Opinion leaders can exert powerful influences on their followers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; yet, little is known about the demographic characteristics and tobacco use behavior of tobacco opinion leaders on the Web and their followers, compared with general Twitter users. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we hypothesized that opinion leaders use more tobacco products and have higher nicotine dependence than the other 2 groups (eg, followers and general Twitter users) and that followers-those who spread messages by opinion leaders-would more likely be in demographic groups that are vulnerable to tobacco marketing influence (eg, young adults and lower educational attainment). METHODS: We constructed the social networks of people who tweet about tobacco and categorized them using a combination of social network and Twitter metrics. To understand the characteristics of tobacco opinion leaders and their followers, we conducted a survey of tobacco opinion leaders, their followers, and general Twitter users. The sample included 347 opinion leaders, 567 followers, and 519 general users. The opinion leaders had a median of 1000 followers, whereas followers and general users had fewer than 600 followers. RESULTS: Opinion leaders were more likely than their followers to report past month use of tobacco products; followers, in turn, were more likely to report past month use of these products than general Twitter users. The followers appeared to be an especially vulnerable group; they tended to be younger (mean age 22.4 years) and have lower education compared with the opinion leaders and general users. CONCLUSIONS: Followers of Twitter tobacco opinion leaders are a vulnerable group that might benefit from antitobacco education to counter the protobacco communications they see on social media.

How social media meet patients’ questions: YouTube™ review for mouth sores in children.

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is one of the most common causes of mouth sores in children so the management of this condition is a matter of great importance. YouTube™ is increasingly being used by patients to obtain health-related information. The aim of this work is to examine the quality of information offered by YouTube™ about mouth sores in children (MSC). Searching the term ‘mouth sores in children’, (MSC) displayed 12.300 results. Of the top 60 videos analyzed, 31 were excluded following exclusion criteria. The major source of upload was from healthcare information channels (HC-41,38%), followed by individual users (HP-25.59%), healthcare professionals (IU-17.24%) and generalist information channels (HC-13.78%); 20.69% of them deal with predisposing factors, and related pathologies, the majority of these propose home remedies (60.72%) rather than topical analgesic drugs (21.43%), antimicrobials (7.14%) and topical steroids (3.57). Most of the videos analyzed were slightly useful (68.97%). Information about mouth sores in children on YouTube™ was poor regardless of the upload source. Analyzing health content on social platforms is a starting point for providing greater quality of health-related information.

Searching for help online: An analysis of peer-to-peer posts on a male-only infertility forum.

Men's experiences of infertility help seeking are under-researched and thus less widely understood than women's experiences, with men's needs for support often missing from reproductive research knowledge. This article presents a thematic analysis of peer-to-peer posts within the context of a UK men-only online infertility forum. The key themes demonstrate that men value male support from those with experience, and that masculinity influences help-seeking requests and men's accounts more broadly. We highlight the value of such online communities in offering support to men in need while recognising the importance of further research across other online settings in order to inform practice around supporting men in the reproductive realm.