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Spreading (Dis)Trust: Covid-19 Misinformation and Government Intervention in Italy

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  • Alessandro Lovari

    (Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy)

Abstract

The commentary focuses on the spread of Covid-19 misinformation in Italy, highlighting the dynamics that have impacted on its pandemic communication. Italy has recently been affected by a progressive erosion of trust in public institutions and a general state of information crisis regarding matters of health and science. In this context, the politicization of health issues and a growing use of social media to confront the Coronavirus “infodemic” have led the Italian Ministry of Health to play a strategic role in using its official Facebook page to mitigate the spread of misinformation and to offer updates to online publics. Despite this prompt intervention, which increased the visibility and reliability of public health communication, coordinated efforts involving different institutions, media and digital platform companies still seem necessary to reduce the impact of misinformation, as using a multichannel strategy helps avoid increasing social and technological disparities at a time of crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandro Lovari, 2020. "Spreading (Dis)Trust: Covid-19 Misinformation and Government Intervention in Italy," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 458-461.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v:8:y:2020:i:2:p:458-461
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Heidi J. Larson, 2020. "Blocking information on COVID-19 can fuel the spread of misinformation," Nature, Nature, vol. 580(7803), pages 306-306, April.
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    RePEc Biblio mentions

    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Economics of Welfare > Health Economics > Economics of Pandemics > Specific pandemics > Covid-19 > Behavioral issues > Trust
    2. > Economics of Welfare > Health Economics > Economics of Pandemics > Specific pandemics > Covid-19 > Behavioral issues > Misinformation

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    Cited by:

    1. Wheatley Dawn, 2022. "Irish audiences and news information from official sources during Covid-19," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 70(3), pages 7-32, August.
    2. Peer Henri Kieweg & Stefanie Schöberl & Gabriele Palozzi, 2021. "The Role of Communication In COVID-19 Crisis Management: Findings about Information Behavior of German and Italian Young People," International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Computer Science Journals (CSC Journals), vol. 12(5), pages 263-288, October.
    3. Vicente Javier Clemente-Suárez & Eduardo Navarro-Jiménez & Juan Antonio Simón-Sanjurjo & Ana Isabel Beltran-Velasco & Carmen Cecilia Laborde-Cárdenas & Juan Camilo Benitez-Agudelo & Álvaro Bustamante-, 2022. "Mis–Dis Information in COVID-19 Health Crisis: A Narrative Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-24, April.
    4. Phi-Hung Nguyen & Jung-Fa Tsai & Ming-Hua Lin & Yi-Chung Hu, 2021. "A Hybrid Model with Spherical Fuzzy-AHP, PLS-SEM and ANN to Predict Vaccination Intention against COVID-19," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(23), pages 1-26, November.
    5. Paolo Nicola Barbieri & Beatrice Bonini, 2021. "Political orientation and adherence to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(2), pages 483-504, July.
    6. , Aisdl, 2020. "Let’s Do Better: Public Representations of COVID-19 Science," OSF Preprints 3cpvs, Center for Open Science.
    7. An Nguyen & Daniel Catalan-Matamoros, 2020. "Digital Mis/Disinformation and Public Engagement with Health and Science Controversies: Fresh Perspectives from Covid-19," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 323-328.
    8. Max Ismailov & Michail Tsikerdekis & Sherali Zeadally, 2020. "Vulnerabilities to Online Social Network Identity Deception Detection Research and Recommendations for Mitigation," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-12, August.

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