Abstract
Social media platforms have created new challenges for communication during crises related to health issues. In general, public health organisations have often been slow to respond to health concerns on social media for lack of visions, competencies, and/or skills to strategically inform and engage with citizens in new challenging environments where digital publics can make their voices heard by medical experts and health institutions. At the same time social media represent channels where lay people can connect easily with rumours, unverified information, or misinformation related to health issues. This requires a new strategic approach by governments and public health organisations to mitigate the spread of misinformation, especially in times of uncertainty and fear, such as COVID-19. Offering an analysis of pandemic-related posts on Facebook by the Italian Ministry of Health and the 20 Italian regions responsible for public health communication, this chapter highlights how the Italian public health authorities have managed this pandemic on their official social media channels. The case study is particularly interesting since Italy was the first Western country to be affected by COVID-19 and by the connected infodemic that struck the country, already immersed in a general information crisis related to health and science issues.
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Notes
- 1.
We used the ISTAT (the Italian National Institute of Statistics) distinction between Northern Italy (including Northwestern Regions, or Liguria, Lombardia, Piemonte, Valle d’Aosta, and Northeastern Regions, or Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto), Central Italy (Lazio, Marche, Toscana and Umbria), and Southern Italy (Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia), which includes Island Regions (Sardegna, Sicilia).
- 2.
These post-report messages or campaigns (like the social cards created by the Ministry of Health) were intended to counter fake news. They were produced by other institutional actors (e.g., ministries, universities, and municipalities) with a national or local visibility, or by regional hospitals and health organisations. They also insert mention medical professionals, or experts who can give correct information about the virus to stop the diffusion of false information that could create panic.
- 3.
Italian Ministry of Health. Data are available at https://opendatadpc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/b0c68bce2cce478eaac82fe38d4138b1
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Lovari, A., Ducci, G., Righetti, N. (2021). Responding to Fake News: The Use of Facebook for Public Health Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy. In: Lewis, M., Govender, E., Holland, K. (eds) Communicating COVID-19. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79735-5_13
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