CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the study

A novel corona virus outbreak was first documented in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December 2019. As of this writing(,Kate Starbird, 2020) it has now been confirmed on six continents and in more than 100 countries. As the world’s health systems funnel resources into learning about, treating, and preventing infections in humans, new information is released daily. In this two-part article series, we will first provide some history on coronaviruses to put this disease outbreak in perspective, and discuss global health security and planning for pandemic response. Secondly, we will offer guidance from the best trusted sources for prevention and planning in the workplace and at home.Coronaviruses are a large family of zoophytic viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to severe respiratory diseases. Zoophytic means these viruses are able to be transmitted from animals to humans. There are several corona viruses known to be circulating in different animal populations that have not yet infected humans. COVID-19 is the most recent to make the jump to human infection.Common signs of COVID-19 infection are similar to the common cold and include respiratory symptoms such as dry cough, fever, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and death.The COVID-19 infection is spread from one person to others via droplets produced from the respiratory system of infected people, often during coughing or sneezing. According to current data, time from exposure to onset of symptoms is usually between two and 14 days, with an average of five days.Although social media  and in particular, Twitter has help in the dissemination of information on covia-19 some of which are right and some wrong online disinformation and misinformation about the coronavirus are different—the former is the intentional spreading of false or misleading information and the latter is the unintentional sharing of the same—both are a serious threat to public health. twitter platforms have facilitated an informational environment that, in combination with other factors, has complicated the public health response, enabled widespread confusion, and contributed to loss of life during the pandemic.Social media platforms especially twitterin addressing coronavirus misinformation and disinformation by structurally altering how their websites function. For the sake of public health, social media platforms must change their product features designed to insentience maximum engagement and amplify the most engaging posts over all others. Doing so will require fundamental changes to the user-facing products and to back-end algorithms that deliver content and make recommendations(.EUDisinfoLab,2020) Platforms must pair these changes with unprecedented transparency in order to enable independent researchers and civil society groups to appropriately study their effect With an eye toward proactively reducing misinformation around the corona virus crisis(,Melanie Smith, 2020) this report makes specific recommendations of product changes that increase friction—anything that inhibits user action within a digital interface—and provide greater context. These principles are discussed in detail below, and suggestions are listed for convenience in the Appendix. Examples of changes recommended include.

1.2   Statement of research problem

Social media platformsespecially twitterhave been involve in disseminating unconfirmed information and relevant UN-fact checks around posts on corona virus topics. Because of the lock down which was caused by the corona virus pandemic so many traffic was generated on social media because so many people signed up to twitter. And because of the panic generated by the virus unconfirmed informations have been shared on twitter platform which have endangered a lot of lives.

1.3   Objectives of the study

l      To assess the implication of of elicit spread of corona virus misinformation on twitter

l      To find out the length at which misinformation on twitter  on covid- 19have affected lives

l      To find out ways misinformation on twitter can be reduced or stopped

1.4   Research questions

The following questions have been prepared for this research which are:

1.                       Do you think the misinformation on corona virus on twitter  have effect on people?

2.                       Do you think it is important to assess the misinformation of covid-19 on  twitter?

3.                       Do u think there are ways by which misinformation covid-19 on  twitter can be stopped?

1.5   Significance of the study

The significance of this study cannot be underestimated as:

l      This study will assess the implication of elicit spread of covid-19 information on twitter

l      The findings of this research work will undoubtedly provide the much needed information to government organizations, media houses, individuals,and academia

1.6   Scope of the study

This study intends to assess the implication of elicit spread of covid-19 information on twitter. Hence this study is twitter  users in rivers state  and as such, will be used as our case study.

1.7   Limitations of the study

This study was constrained by a number of factors which are as follows:

 Financial constraint is inevitable considering the present economic situations. Due to lack of finance at the researchers disposal to get materials and in printing of questionnaires. it was not possible to visit some of the communities that have been plagued by bandit activities.

 In developing countries like Nigeria, there is the problem of insufficient data.

Time factor: time factor pose another constraint since having to shuttle between writing of the research and also engaging in other academic work making it uneasy for the researcher   

1.8   Operational definition of terms

Assess:  evaluate or estimate the nature, ability, or quality of.

Impact  this is the action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another

Implication:the conclusion that can be drawn from something although it is not explicitly stated.

Elicit:to obtain something, esp. information or a reaction:

Covid-19: this  is a disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. 'CO' stands for corona, 'VI' for virus, and 'D' for disease. Formerly, this disease was referred to as '2019 novel corona virus' or '2019-nCoV.'

Information: facts provided or learned about something or someone

Twitter: is a free social networking micro blogging service that allows registered members to broadcast short posts called tweets.

REFERENCES

EU DisinfoLab, “Platforms’ Responses to COVID-19 Mis- and Disinformation,”March27,2020,availableat https://www.disinfo.eu/resources/covid-19/platforms-responses-to-covid-19-mis-and-disinformation/. 

Kate Starbird, “How a Crisis Researcher Makes Sense of Covid-19 Misinformation,”Medium,March19, 2020, available at https://onezero.medium.com/reflecting-on-the-covid-19-infodemic-as-a-crisis-informatics-researcher-ce0656fa4d0a.

Melanie Smith, Erin McAweeney, and Léa Ronzaud, “The COVID-19‘Infodemic’” (New York: Graphika, 2020), available athttps://publicassets.graphika.com/reports/Graphika_Report_Covid19_Infodemic.pdf

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