MISINFODEMICS: IMPACTS OF FALSE INFOGRAPHICS ON COVID-19 VACCINATION IN FACEBOOK TO SELECTED CAS STUDENTS

This study aimed to analyzed the impacts of false infographics about Covid-19 vaccination published in social networking site Facebook to selected students from the college of arts and sciences. It specifically seeks to identify the students’ level of exposure in Facebook on Infographics about Covid-19, to determine their bases on distinguishing false and factual infographics in Facebook on Covid-19 vaccines through message/content, visual design, and organization, and the impacts of false infographics in Facebook about Covid-19 vaccination on being vaccinated in terms of safety aspects, health decisions and trust on health institutions. Using descriptive qualitative and quantitative approaches, a focus group discussion and content analysis was conducted to gather the data. For the FGD, there were seven (7) purposively selected students. For the content analysis, five (5) coders were identified to analyze five (5). infographics on Covid-19 vaccines in Facebook. Coder sheet were provided to gather the data from the coders for them to distinguish the contents of Infographics in Facebook. Based from the findings, the researcher concludes that the participants spend an amount of hours using Facebook when reading and understanding infographic contents about covid-19. As for the bases in distinguishing false and factual infographic on Covid-19 vaccines in Facebook, the participant focus on analyzing the source, pictures and sentence structured used in the infographic. False infographics from Facebook does not affect their trust on medical or health institutions and choice of being vaccinated. For the content analysis, in analyzing the five infographics about covid-19 vaccines in terms of the text/copy, message, graphics and layouts shows the different bases of the participant’s way of distinguishing false and factual infographics published in Facebook.