30 April 2020 10:02
Provenance lead researcher, Dr Eileen Culloty, has contributed to the development of an information kit to help older people in Ireland avoid misinformation relating to Covid-19.
Working with Age Action and Media Literacy Ireland, Dr Eileen Culloty, lead researcher at Provenance, developed the ‘How to avoid false information about COVID-19’ guide. It forms part of the Age Action Getting Started Kit, a set of seven guides to help older people navigate smartphones, apps, and COVID-19 information.
The guide highlights reliable sources of information and provides a simple check list to assess information and identify rumours, hoaxes, scams, and conspiracy theories. It advises older people to check the reliability of information by following three steps: identify the source, compare reliable sources, and ask for help if necessary.
The guide also provides a summary of the major types of false information surrounding COVID-19 including rumours, hoaxes, scams, and conspiracy theories. Following best-practice, the guide does not repeat any false claims. Instead, it highlights the nature of claims and provides a key question to assess reliability. For example, “am I being asked for personal details?” and “does someone claim to know who ‘creates’ the virus or why?”.
research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 825227
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