Covid-19, the corona virus’s scientific term, is indeed the dominating headline of all news websites, TV channels, and articles. However, the problem is that misinformation and disinformation are also accompanying these news articles. MTV Lebanon has had its take in this and some say this is for the purpose of gossip and attaining a scoop.
To explain what happened according to the above article. Mtv Lebanon called a doctor and asked him about the probability of animals getting infected by the corona virus –specifically about a Belgian cat that was reportedly infected. His reply was that yes they can transmit and get infected by Covid-19. He stressed on the need to treat animals the same as human beings in this matter. Although, the Lebanese “Veterinary Syndicate and the World Health Organization confirmed (scientifically) that pets cannot transmit the disease”. This resulted in a mass-abandonment of pets and disastrous treatment to animals for a while.
Referring to one doctor as a way to confirm such a critical assumption goes under the category of Pseudoscience. That is not getting enough reliable sources to confirm a certain claim just for the purpose of getting a scoop or attaining a political agenda.
Now what can be done to limit misinformation or disinformation is the following:
- A law should be passed that forces Tv stations and Media owners to hire news editors responsible for highlighting disinformation that are circulating in the public sphere and to debunk them accordingly.
- Tv stations might consider dedicating a certain section daily to emphasize the reliability and credibility of news articles.
- General training through schools curricula and NGO campaigning about the importance of being media literate can be implemented so that the most social media users (young generation) can adopt media literacy skills.
References:
Khoury, S. (2020, March 28). MTV Spreads False Claim About Pets And Coronavirus. Retrieved from https://lebanesedaily.com/en/2020/03/28/mtv-spreads-false-claim-about-pets-and-coronavirus/
Kumanyika, C. (2018), Beyond Fake News, https://youtu.be/t10ErbfwG14?t=2925
Morgan, D. (2020, January 19). Infographic: Beyond Fake News – 10 Types of Misleading News – Sixteen Languages. Retrieved from https://eavi.eu/beyond-fake-news-10-types-misleading-info/
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