PERCEPTION AND IMPACT OF CACOPHONOUS INFORMATION, MISINFORMATION AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES ON CORONAVIRUS AMONG LAGOS STATE RESIDENTS

Abstract

several social media platforms to stump out flood of misinformation and promote c: This study examined the perception and impact of cacophonous information, misinformation and conspiracy theories about Coronavirus among Lagos state residents. The objectives of the study were to (i) determine the sources of misinformation, cacophonous information, and conspiracy theories about Coronavirus among Lagos State Residents; (ii) determine the level of exposure to media that carries misinformation, cacophonous information, and conspiracy theories about Coronavirus among Lagos State Residents; (iii) determine the perception of Lagos State residents on misinformation, cacophonous information, and conspiracy theories about Coronavirus; (iv) find out the impact of Coronavirus misinformation, cacophonous information, and conspiracy theories on Lagos State residents; (v) determine possible solution to mitigate the impact of Coronavirus misinformation, cacophonous information and conspiracy theories among Lagos State residents. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Stratified sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the Local Government Area used in the study. Fourteen million, eight hundred and sixty-two thousand, one hundred and one constituted the population for the study. A total of three hundred and eighty-four Lagos state residents which served as the sample size was drawn from the total population of Lagos State Residents using Krejcie and Morgan table. Questionnaires were used to collect data which was analyzed with statistical method indicating frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation. The study made the following findings: 1. Facebook was the most preferred social media platform that gives news update on Coronavirus information (43%) while Twitter has (26.6%) and WhatsApp with (30.3%). 2. Moderate attention is given to media that carries Coronavirus updates (51.7%). 3.Residents’ perception on Coronavirus misinformation, cacophonous information and conspiracy theories is that Coronavirus is a virus whose genes were handled by scientists inside a laboratory in Wuhan, China to discover a vaccine against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS) but accidentally escaped from the laboratory (M= 3.0, SD= 1.3). 4. Impact of Coronavirus misinformation, cacophonous information, and conspiracy theories on Lagos State residents is that it led to overdose of hydroxychloroquine (M= 3,0, SD= 1.2). 5. To mitigate the impact of Coronavirus misinformation, cacophonous information and conspiracy theories among Lagos State residents, scientist should make available their expertise to journalists and fact-checkers in order to help debunk misinformation (M= 3.2, SD= 1.2). The research concluded that information passed through these social media platforms influences the perception of Lagos state residents about Coronavirus. It was therefore recommended that World Health Organization (WHO) should partner wit ritical updates from healthcare agencies.