Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 1

Thierry Labossiere

Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students

ENC1102

Dr. Steffen Guenzel

26th April 2021

Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 2

Abstract

Many people around the world are going through a dystopian crisis in which lives are

being lost by the days due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that has killed millions. Each

country has relied on scientific studies on Covid-19 to prevent the increase of the continuous

spread of the disease among its citizens. Throughout the world, countries have performed certain

measures to decrease the number of cases of the diseases, in hopes of time will be on their side

for vaccination to be available for the citizens. In today’s society, the realm of technology has

provided its benefits regarding spreading out information for citizens, especially social media

users, as well as its problems when some of this information can consist of false rhetoric. In this

paper, I'll exhibit a case on the importance of misinformation on Covid-19 can cause a threat to

the health of college students in which it'll be shown through a primary research study.

Introduction

After exhibiting thorough research understanding, it is crucial to recognize that college

students can largely be played as victims to the horrid threat of misinformation on Covid-19 due

to college students' substantial presence on social media, which will cause a critical toll on their

health. Furthermore, this issue can be recognized through research that has been conducted on

college students through an experimental survey that allows researchers to analyze the

prospective college students' relationship with misinformation and Covid-19. Interestingly, a

series of different pieces of evidence can help argue the impotence of this issue through other

evidence that’s provided by different people who have experienced the importance of

misinformation and Covid-19. Throughout this paper, I’ll construct recognition on the impact
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 3

that misinformation on Covid-19 can lead to critical threats to the health of many college

students.

Literature Review

There are different aspects of evidence regarding misinformation and Covid-19 that can

further argue the problem of the spread of misinformation through different social media

platforms and news media on Covid-19. This evidence can be provided beyond students, which

includes health professionals, researchers, and journalisms. In addition, evidence can be provided

through literary analysis within these issues. However, professionals within the health field have

recognized the issue of misinformation on Covid-19 being spread regarding different aspects of

Covid-19 ranging from vaccination, protocols, etc. The Control Disease Center has explicitly

recognized the impact of further spread of misinformation, states “...mitigating the risks

associated with COVID-19 requires sustained public action, so misinformation that promotes

false preventives or cures can hinder necessary behaviors to reduce the spread of the disease...”

(Vraga et Bode, 2021). The misinformation can change the behavior of students' approach to the

disease, such as refusing to wear masks, maintain social distancing, etc. based on the false

information that’s being displayed on their screen which causes the health professionals a harder

time combating that virus. Furthermore, in College Campuses Are COVID-19 Superspreaders it

expresses that the spread of Covid-19 cases among college campuses is resulted from the lack of

ability for society to carry out proper research on the issue of Covid-19, instead of relying on

false information. This can be expressed due to the study that was displayed in the article as

there’s been a rise in cases during the first two weeks of college. This is concerning as college

students are actively interacting with their peers. It’s important they are aware of the threats to
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 4

avoid receiving the disease as well as transmitting them to others, especially those with health

conditions in which they are most likely to experience a critical journey of worrisome with their

health.

Moreover, trusting misinformation can lead students to a harmful endgame since the

misinformation on Covid-19 tends to contradict factual information that is being presented by

health professionals and scientists. This can further damage their mental health beyond Covid-19

to an extent that may affect their academic performance in school. Evidently, Steve Posner’s

article, The Danger of Political Stupidity in College, has reason to expect such negative

performance due to their experiences with misinformation in which it states“...millions of college

students are being overwhelmed by a steady stream of online disinformation, political bullying,

medical quackery, baseless conspiracies, and spiteful cruelty...” (Posner, 2020). Such feelings of

these students potentially harm the lives of college students, given that Covid-19 has been the

center of political tools and misinformation over the course of the past year. Unfortunately, this

could be seen through social media and news reports, in which an article called Impact of

Unreliable Content on Social Media Users during COVID-19 and Stance Detection System has

discussed the issue of misinformation within social media that can affect psychological behavior

when interpreting the issue of information. In addition, it further discusses that such an impact of

perceiving false information as fact would lead to social unrest and problematic outcomes. This

greatly affects the scientist and health professional to perform their tasks if such problems like

misinformation make their job to carry out protocols harder than anticipated. Also, many

professionals have tried to remain objective when handling the Covid-19 pandemic as many
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 5

people have turned the Covid-19 pandemic mistakenly into a political issue when it’s rightfully a

health issue.

Speaking of political issues, many politicians have misled the people's perception

towards Covid-19 in which they contribute to the act of spreading misinformation. In the age of

technology, politicians take advantage of using their platforms by sharing opinions on

predominant college students' platforms like Instagram, Twitter, etc. One of the well-known

politicians that spread controversial misleading information is the President of the United States

named Donald Trump whos’ barred from many social media platforms due to his continuous

spread of misinformation and violence. Trump has been barred from the platform during the fall

of 2020 in which has played a significant turning point on misinformation. An article called

Misinformation Dropped Dramatically the Week after Twitter Banned Trump and Some Allies by

Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg focuses on the downfall of misinformation on Twitter

since Trump has permanently suspended from many platforms. Since his ban, misinformation

has been reported to be decreasing significantly over a period of time. This shows that Trump has

played a role in misinformation as he presented his perspective on Covid-19 in which it

contradicts the scientists' studies. An article called Twitter Removes Trump Retweet Sharing

False Information on COVID-19 Deaths by Nathan Bomey has recognized problems within

Trump’s twitter tweets, where one's states “...a post retweeted by Trump that had falsely claimed

the existence of a "cure" for Covid-19” (Bomey 2020). If a leader of a country has shared false

information on an issue, it would affect the way people should approach the situation as well as

their behavior among others. In this case, Trump sharing false information about Covid-19,

particularly the “cure” would force a change in the public's approach to handling the disease.
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 6

Interestingly, despite misinformation spreading across different people’s screens from

social media platforms to news media, a collective of health professionals has found ways to

conduct thorough studies on misinformation losing the trust of the people. To be more in-depth,

if people develop a continuous spread of misinformation, then the people will exhibit a lack of

trust with any real information that’s being presented to help combat false information. In a study

called Covid-19 Disruption on College Students: Academic and Socioemotional Implications, it

focuses on the misinformation being viral that can cause a guaranteed danger towards the

community of public health, especially college students. In addition, we must be obliged to reject

the misinformation that’s spreading among college students that are based on Covid-19 because

such false information shared around college students can reach beyond this discourse

community that can pose a greater danger towards some members of society such elderly, health

risks, etc. That’s why it’s important for us to ensure that we are spreading accurate information,

as well as proofreading the information we believe. Based on an article report called Impact of

COVID-19 Pandemic on College Student Mental Health and Wellness has exhibited further

evidence regarding the health of college students, it shows that the impact of the pandemic plays

a high impact on student’s mental health, without the additional influence of misinformation.

Given that misinformation is part of the ongoing spread of Covid-19, it raises the questions on

the further risk on students' mental health as they are perhaps one of the most active members of

our society.

As we include the focus on the impact misinformation can bring to society, it’s important

to understand the literature perspective of misinformation as many students may be unaware of

the power of rhetoric. Rhetoric is everywhere around through human interaction, in which it can
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 7

tend in situations many people may perhaps be unaware of the literary device. Based on Doug

Downs article's Making sense of human interaction and meaning-making, his well-acquainted

understanding of rhetorics has exhibited a substantial interpretation of rhetorics in which he

states “rhetoric refers to a set of principles that explain and predict how people make meaning

and interact” (Downs, 2013). Within this literary device, it is divided into three subgroups to

provide specific different types of rhetoric in which the application of motivational rhetoric can

be displayed as the appropriate type of rhetoric based on the situation that's occurring throughout

our society. Motivation rhetoric is a type of rhetoric where a rhetor is displaying a motive to

people through different methods such as human interaction, writing, etc. to help further their

own agenda which can be applied in this situation regarding misinformation of Covid-19 among

college students. This can be effective since the false rhetorics within misinformations are

predominantly through different social media platforms such as Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. in which

college students tend to be present.

Furthermore, college students' lack of abilities to detect any false rhetoric will further

push the rhetoric through different discourse communities in these social media platforms. Since

this is likely to occur, it’s important to acknowledge that rhetors can influence the ways many

people may perceive the situation in which an article by Keith Grant-Davie recognizes the

importance of rhetors by stating “rhetor’s role in defining the situation, yet seems to me that

rhetors are as much as many constituents of their rhetorical situation as their audiences''

(Grant-Davie, 2012). Given this case, Covid-19 is a critical disease that costs many lives in

which the environment that people have lived through the past year regarding quarantine,

masking, etc has demotivated people to continue these protocols. This allowed for rhetors to
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 8

spread misinformation on the condition of Covid-19, which later drove many people to believe in

these fallacies rather than the health professionals.

Methodology

The research study was conducted by myself, by going through an experimental survey to

understand the perspective of college students on their views towards Covid-19 and

misinformations. This method was inspired by another research COVID-19 Disruption on

College Students: Academic and Socioemotional Implications, that focuses on the psychological

and educational aspect of college students through the Covid-19 pandemic in which they’re

required to do tasks online and series of different surveys. Given the survey method, researchers

have learned that college students exhibit frustration with their experience with online tasks

regarding their academics, as well as experiencing mental health symptoms. Impactfully, this

research has elevated further inspiration for the research on misinformation on Covid-19 among

college students. In the research, a survey with a series of questions was asked to a small sample

of 50 participants to help reflect the viewpoints of the college students population. Also, the

survey will consist of 16 questions. The purpose of the method for research is to ensure an

accurate reflection of the student's perspective on different questions to help maintain integrity

and transparency throughout the research.

Throughout the different questions, participants would be given debriefing on the

research as well as anonymity to avoid any form of outside influence when performing the

experiment. In each of these questions, participants will encounter questions that resolve

different correlations between misinformation and Covid-19 ranging from fact-checking

information to being tested for Covid-19. In each of these questions, there is a wide range of
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 9

answer choices to help accurately reflect their belief in each question. However, it’s important to

provide many different forms of questions, so these answers can perhaps correlate to other

questions within the survey that may allow the result of the study to be more clarified.

Result

After conducting the study regarding misinformation on Covid-19 leading to a potential

threat towards college students, in which the result consisted of 50 participants answering 16

questions on the survey. An article called Disrupting the COVID-19 Misinfodemic with Network

Interventions: Network Solutions for Network Problems recognize the problem of

misinformation by stating “...amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, a highly troublesome influx

of viral misinformation threatens to exacerbate the crisis through its deleterious effects on public

health outcomes and health behavior decisions…” (Young et al, 2021). This can play a factor

within college students receiving as they are perhaps the most active member of our society, in

which they are more often to experience human interaction in the midst of the pandemic. Given

the result, the perspective of college students has further indicated that misinformation is posing

a threat to them since college students are predominantly social media users in which

misinformation is largely present.

Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 10

Throughout the result, 68% of participants were tested for Covid-19 regarding whether they have

ever received Covid-19. There’s 24% of participants who have not been tested for Covid-19,

while 8% of the participants haven’t taken a test for Covid-19.

This result is regarding whether students are worried about their health with Covid-19, in which

it shows that 54% exhibit agreement with eeriness on their health. It shows that 22% of

participants are neutral, while 22% of participants disagree with being worried about their health

regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 11

This result discusses whether participants are worried about the health of others such as their

family members, friends, etc. regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. The result, it shows that 100%

of participants agree, which it’s broken down into two different types of agreement. 38% of

participants somewhat agree, while 62% strongly agree with the stance.

This result shows that 18% of the participant’s exhibit agreement that prominent political figures

changed their opinion on Covid-19, while 56% of the participants proved otherwise.

Interestingly, there’s 26% of the participants remained neutral regarding this particular question

in the experiment.
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 12

The result shows that 54% of participants disagree with their judgment on Covid-19 has been

influenced by misinformation. In addition, 22% of participants have remained neutral on the

decision while 20% of participants disagree that their judgment on Covid-19 is influenced by

misinformation.

In this result, it shows that 80% of the participants have encountered misinformation on the

Covid-19 pandemic, while 8% of participants disagree with the motion that they’ve encountered

misinformation. Also, 12% of participants remain neutral regarding encountering misinformation

on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 13

Based on this question, the result shows that 80% of the participants took the time to fact-check

information before making any judgment, in which 8% disagree otherwise. In addition, 12% of

the participants have decided to remain neutral.

Discussion

Although college students' chances of experiencing death from Covid-19 is less likely to

occur in comparison to different age demographics in our society due to them being

predominantly young, it is still important to recognize that misinformation on Covid-19 can play

a critical threat to their health. Over the course of the research, evidence has been shown through

different perspectives and articles that revolve around the aspect of Covid-19 and

misinformation. In the college students, it was important to maintain transparency by ensuring

the survey was anonymous so participants are able to answer the survey that accurately reflects

their views. The result has been provided as further evidence to prove that misinformation on

Covid-19 can display harm to college students' health. Unfortunately, health professionals have

advocated disenfranchising the spread of misinformation as it can change the behavior on the

ways people may approach the diseases. It is critical to acknowledge that information on
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 14

Covid-19 can be displayed as less harmful and critical in the misinformation than the actual

information presented by health professionals and scientists.

Within these misinformations, it consists of false rhetorics in which the rhetoricians use

to change the perception of people’s opinion on Covid-19 to further their agenda in which is to

disenfranchise factual information. Luckily, fact-checking can be displayed as an important

factor that can combat misinformation, but it’ll provide difficulty as misinformation tends to

overshadow factual information, especially when such misinformation is being shared by the

former President of the United States Donald Trump. The former President plays a role in

misinformation to his many followers in which many of those followers could consist of college

students entrusting their safety based on the former president Trump reports, despite the

information contradicting the factual information presented by scientists. Interestingly an article

called Fact-checking as risk communication: the multi-layered risk of misinformation in times of

Covid-19, has provided valid reasons on the importance of conducting fact-checking on our

sources as it states “In such circumstances, misinformation functions as a meta-risk that interacts

with and complicates public's perceptions of the original risk...” (Krause et al., 2019). Given this

statement, it’s important that we conduct an act of fact-checking because it's an important tool

that can benefit the well-being of many college students that may suppress misinformation.

Overall, Covid-19 is a disease that hurts millions of lives across the globe, in which it is

important to ensure safety for the people around us as the disease continues to spread alongside

misinformation.
Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 15

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“College Campuses Are COVID-19 Superspreaders, New Study Suggests.” ScienceDaily,

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and Wellness.” Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry,
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Grant-Davie, Kevin. (2012). Rhetorical Situations And Their Constraints. vol.15, no.2, pp. 264
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Downs, Doug. “Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making.” Rheotric,
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Dwoskin, Elizabeth, and Craig Timberg. Misinformation Dropped Dramatically the Week after
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Misinformation on Covid-19 among College Students 16

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