IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/dpjbf.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Media manipulation of information on the health effects of 5G? A small-sample case study of the Croatian news website Index.hr

Author

Listed:
  • Gabrić, Petar

    (University of Cologne, Germany)

Abstract

A history of research on radio frequency radiation, and recent scant research on the newly emerging 5G suggests that the expansion of 5G poses a possible public health issue. The media play a decisive role in how the public responds to a public health issue, and what it knows about it. However, there is an increasing amount of misinformation on health topics in the media. The present case study investigated whether the Croatian news website Index.hr manipulates information on the health effects of 5G. We constructed one experimental corpus, containing all articles by Index.hr on health effects of 5G, and two control corpora, one with articles about health effects of 5G published by reliable mainstream media, and one with articles about science (but not 5G) published by Index.hr. We assessed the presence of references, scientific references, misinformation, opinion expression, and opinion subjectivity. Compared to Index.hr science articles, Index.hr 5G articles were 10.78 times likelier to contain no references, 4.20 times likelier to contain no scientific references, 10.78 times likelier to contain misinformation, 288.14 times likelier to express the author’s opinion on the issue, and 16.95 times likelier to express a subjective opinion. The simultaneous increase in misinformation and reduction in referencing suggests that misinformation doesn’t stem from other unreliable sources of information, but that the misinformation is produced within Index.hr. An increase in opinion expression, and opinion subjectivity in the context of misinformation suggests that Index.hr is manipulating the information on health effects of 5G. This is corroborated by the fact that the two types of misinformation identified in the present study included erroneous referencing, and denial of the existence of scientific literature on the topic. Furthermore, all articles on both 5G, and scientific topics were written by different authors, indicating that this phenomenon is systematic within Index.hr. We conclude that our data point to a manipulation of information on health effects of 5G by Index.hr. Still, the small sample size warrants a degree of caution.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabrić, Petar, 2020. "Media manipulation of information on the health effects of 5G? A small-sample case study of the Croatian news website Index.hr," SocArXiv dpjbf, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:dpjbf
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/dpjbf
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5e94cda1f1353503c0d54594/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/dpjbf?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kostoff, Ronald N. & Lau, Clifford G.Y., 2013. "Combined biological and health effects of electromagnetic fields and other agents in the published literature," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(7), pages 1331-1349.
    2. Dietram A. Scheufele & Nicole M. Krause, 2019. "Science audiences, misinformation, and fake news," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(16), pages 7662-7669, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlos Carrasco-Farré, 2022. "The fingerprints of misinformation: how deceptive content differs from reliable sources in terms of cognitive effort and appeal to emotions," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, December.
    2. James N. Druckman, 2022. "Threats to Science: Politicization, Misinformation, and Inequalities," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 700(1), pages 8-24, March.
    3. Xuhao Shao & Ao Li & Chuansheng Chen & Elizabeth F. Loftus & Bi Zhu, 2023. "Cross-stage neural pattern similarity in the hippocampus predicts false memory derived from post-event inaccurate information," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen & Stephan Lewandowsky & Cass R. Sunstein & Ralph Hertwig, 2020. "How behavioural sciences can promote truth, autonomy and democratic discourse online," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 1102-1109, November.
    5. Huiru Cao & Xiaomin Li & Yanfeng Lin & Songyao Lian, 2022. "Hybrid Fake Information Containing Strategy Exploiting Multi-Dimensions Data in Online Community," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(18), pages 1-13, September.
    6. Danielle Caled & Mário J. Silva, 2022. "Digital media and misinformation: An outlook on multidisciplinary strategies against manipulation," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 123-159, May.
    7. Abayomi Samuel Oyekale, 2021. "Willingness to Take COVID-19 Vaccines in Ethiopia: An Instrumental Variable Probit Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-11, August.
    8. Juana Farfán & María Elena Mazo, 2021. "Disinformation and Responsibility in Young People in Spain during the COVID-19 Era," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-8, August.
    9. Niels G. Mede, 2022. "Legacy media as inhibitors and drivers of public reservations against science: global survey evidence on the link between media use and anti-science attitudes," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Jonathon P. Schuldt & Adam R. Pearson & Neil A. Lewis jr. & Ashley Jardina & Peter K. Enns, 2022. "Inequality and Misperceptions of Group Concerns Threaten the Integrity and Societal Impact of Science," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 700(1), pages 195-207, March.
    11. Lee, Edmund W.J. & Bao, Huanyu & Wang, Yixi & Lim, Yi Torng, 2023. "From pandemic to Plandemic: Examining the amplification and attenuation of COVID-19 misinformation on social media," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    12. Alberto Barchetti & Emma Neybert & Susan Powell Mantel & Frank R. Kardes, 2022. "The Half-Truth Effect and Its Implications for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, June.
    13. Kaisu Koivumäki & Timo Koivumäki & Erkki Karvonen, 2020. "“On Social Media Science Seems to Be More Human”: Exploring Researchers as Digital Science Communicators," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 425-439.
    14. Jiexun Li & Xiaohui Chang, 2023. "Combating Misinformation by Sharing the Truth: a Study on the Spread of Fact-Checks on Social Media," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 1479-1493, August.
    15. Yunjuan Luo & Yang Cheng, 2021. "The Presumed Influence of COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Survey Research from Two Countries in the Global Health Crisis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-15, May.
    16. Beniamino Schiavone & Andrea Vitale & Mena Gallo & Gianlucasalvatore Russo & Domenico Ponticelli & Mario Borrelli, 2021. "Overview of Facebook Use by Hospitals in Italy: A Nationwide Survey during the COVID-19 Emergency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-17, July.
    17. Peter D. Gluckman & Anne Bardsley & Matthias Kaiser, 2021. "Brokerage at the science–policy interface: from conceptual framework to practical guidance," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    18. 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.
    19. Sheshadri Chatterjee & Ranjan Chaudhuri & Demetris Vrontis, 2023. "Role of fake news and misinformation in supply chain disruption: impact of technology competency as moderator," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 327(2), pages 659-682, August.
    20. Bin Yang & Naipeng Chao & Cheng-Jun Wang, 2023. "A solid camp with flowing soldiers: heterogeneous public engagement with science communication on Twitter," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:dpjbf. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.