To upload a copy of the work to the thesis database of the college/school/institute/department and any other database available on the public Internet;. To grant open access to the aforementioned works, i.e. alo fa e f e work in accordance with the provisions of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 8293), especially for teaching, study and research purposes. The Open University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Communication Development (MDC) degree.
Likewise, I am grateful to the counsel of the committee members, Professor Benjamina Flor, PhD, and Professor Alexander Flor, PhD, who helped me further refine this work. Supported by the Network Gatekeeping Theory, data was collected from October to December 2021 through an online survey among 76 Facebook users who are top fans of the Capas Information Office page. The results show that the participants are not only consumers of the information they receive from posters through Facebook features, but also information.
Finally, recommendations are made to address the emerging roles of users as gatekeepers and a typology of the characteristics of gatekeeping activities on traditional media and social media is proposed.
Introduction
Threat because exposure to misinformation about COVID-19 on social media can endanger the health and safety of users (Lee et al., 2020). This study investigates the emerging stewardship role of social network users - receiving, controlling (gatekeeping) and disseminating false (information) on the Facebook web platform. What are the characteristics of the research participants regarding a) a certain socio-demographic profile and b) the use of social media (Facebook).
How are the characteristics of the participants as gatekeepers associated with the gatekeeping activities they use on COVID-19 misinformation. The general aim of the study is to explore the emerging gatekeeping role of social media users – receiving, controlling (gatekeeping) and distributing. Identify the Facebook features that serve as conduits of COVID-19 misinformation on the social media platform;.
Users play a role in spreading misinformation in social media (Törnberg, 2018; Vosoughi et al., 2018) due to Web 2.0 and UGC.
Review of Related Literature
On the other hand, Brennen et al. 2020) also found that most misinformation came from ordinary social media users (80%), even if the content created produced less engagement (31%). Exposure to COVID-19 misinformation on social media can endanger the health and safety of users. The advent of the Internet and social media not only democratized the role of gatekeepers, but also brought about changes in gatekeeping theory itself.
In summary, given the changes in the information landscape and gatekeeping process, social media users are at the center of the information journey that occurs across platforms. Even through the actions of social media platforms, advertising can be another way to spread false information about the pandemic. This study sought to contribute to the understanding of the role of social media users in disseminating and limiting information online.
The information moves towards the gates to the gatekeepers (G), which would then select a gatekeeper activity that would be applied to the information before it was transmitted to the gate (P2). On social media platforms such as Facebook, COVID-19 misinformation can originate from politicians, celebrities, other public figures, and ordinary social media users (Brennen et al., 2020). Poster (P) the source of the COVID-19 misinformation trying to enter the gatekeeper's network.
Methodology
Data from Facebook Ads Manager (Facebook, n.d.-a), during the study period, revealed that the study location has a potential Facebook advertising audience of 120,000 users aged 18 to 60 and older who live in the area , as seen in Figure 3. The criteria to be surveyed were as follows: a) must be .. residents of Capas, Tarlac, b) 18 years old and above, and c) Main fans of the Facebook page of the Office of Capas Information during the months of October, November, and December 2021. The researcher used full count sampling and contacted the Information Office Facebook page of 229 top Capas Fans, listed from October 2021 to December 2021.
Out of the 225 Top Fans contacted, 80 agreed to participate, 26 refused to answer the survey, 111 did not respond to the message, 6 blocked the researcher on Facebook and 2 deactivated their accounts after the initial contact. Three of the 80 who participated in the study did not meet the criteria, and one respondent did not complete the questionnaire. Although the number may have been reduced, the respondents represent the characteristics of the population.
The researcher created a master list of the Top Fans of Capas Information Office Facebook page from October 2021 to December 2021. An informed consent and questionnaire were created online using Qualtrics and distributed via Facebook messenger to Top Fans of the Capas. In addition, the researcher assigned a unique code to each respondent, which they entered at the beginning of the survey for purposes of monitoring and anonymity.
The first part of the online questionnaire collected demographic data such as age, gender and education level of the participants. In the fourth part of the questionnaire, the sample identified the themes of COVID-19 misinformation they encountered on Facebook and how they identified COVID-19 misinformation stories. In addition, the ranked data was subjected to the rank mean formula seen in (1), where x is the number of respondents who provided an answer to a given rank, and w is the weight of the rank.
In addition, correlation measures were used for variables describing the gatekeeper with GA (ie, rGA and dGA) to understand the association of gatekeeper characteristics with each gatekeeper activity. Participants were informed about the scope of the study, their benefits and rights in the consent form.
Results and Discussion
After reporting their Facebook use, respondents shared how often they have encountered misinformation about COVID-19 on the social media platform (Table 3). In their daily use of the social networking site, almost all respondents (69/76) reported encountering a varying amount of COVID-19 misinformation content. Other public figures (eg social media influencers) ranked 1st among the posters, with 34 respondents saying they were their most frequent source of misinformation about COVID-19 on Facebook.
The transmitted COVID-19 misinformation from the posters through Facebook features is finally reaching the gates of social media users, and not just acting as. Yet the respondents only occasionally performed this (f = 31), meaning that they only occasionally reported misinformation about COVID-19 to Facebook for removal. In short, the respondents' primary limiting approach to COVID-19 misinformation was to cut off the poster's information flow by blocking or unfollowing.
Encouraging social media users who act as gatekeepers to use more proactive restrictive approaches may further suppress the flow of misinformation about COVID-19. However, the gatekeepers in this study disseminated the misinformation about COVID-19 by integrating Facebook reactions to the post containing false information; the response expands the scope of the content (Buchanan & . Benson, 2019). Common gatekeeping activities are as follows: Adding is commenting on post containing COVID-19 misinformation; screen is creating media for COVID-19.
According to respondents, those most likely to see their interactions with COVID-19 misinformation are their friends (54/76), their family (47/76), and their. These “gated” members are likely to see respondents in an era of COVID-19 misinformation, as Facebook is also prioritizing the distribution of participants' social media activities to these specific contacts (Mosseri, 2018). The majority of respondents stated that they have other followers, indicating that their interaction with COVID-19 misinformation will spread to a broader audience.
Furthermore, the extent of respondents' misinformation in the time of COVID-19 extends beyond their friends and family members. In terms of sex, being a male respondent was associated with being more restrictive in the movement of misinformation about COVID-19. Thus, as the core fans who participated in the study encountered more misinformation about COVID-19, they were more likely to spread false information about the pandemic.
Therefore, it is safe to say that respondents who performed fewer verification methods were more likely to spread COVID-19 misinformation.
Summary, Conclusion, Implications and Recommendations
COVID-19 on Facebook per use, which is worth highlighting due to the link between exposure to COVID-19 misinformation and beliefs (Lee et al., 2020). Furthermore, the gatekeepers in this study never displayed, localized, and repeated misinformation about COVID-19, with frequencies reaching more than half of the sample. Disinformation about COVID-19 achieved two of NGT's three objectives: protecting the sealed off areas from outside forces and maintaining the flow of information in the network.
Consequently, their gated network was exposed to COVID-19 misinformation through the scattered actions of the gatekeepers. As the amount of COVID-19 misinformation they encountered increased, respondents were more likely to spread the information distortion by adding, displaying, locating, and manipulating. In general, the gatekeepers in this study were restrictive about misinformation about COVID-19, choosing gatekeeper activities that required minimal effort to perform.
As this study shows, the infodemic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has presented various lies to social media users. This research contributes to this call by outlining the flow of misinformation about COVID-19 on Facebook as experienced by respondents. Health-protective behavior, social media use, and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
This section will also identify the sources of misinformation about COVID-19 and the Facebook feature where you received that misinformation. This section will gather information about the topics of misinformation about COVID-19 that you encounter on Facebook and how you can identify this false content. This section will introduce you to the different Facebook actions you can use to post misinformation about COVID-19.
This study aims to understand how Facebook users, who are the page's top fans, influence the movement of misinformation about COVID-19 in the social media platform. However, your responses can help us learn more about how Facebook users, as new gatekeepers, are influencing the movement of misinformation about COVID-19 on the platform.
