ES1103: CA2 Writing - Social Media Application

Using your disciplinary content (or any other theme you choose), describe ONE specific problem connected with an issue of interest to you, explaining what, in your view, the problem is. Your problem should focus on a particular community or country. Evaluate one or more existing approaches which address your chosen problem and suggest one or more new or improved measures which may further mitigate it.

C - Currency
R - Reliability / currency
A - Authority
Authors, credentials, approval from experts
A - Accuracy
Verify the claims in other sources;
P - Purpose
The purpose stated; Object in standpoint; Authors biasness
https://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/2017/07/evaluate_internet.pdf

Getting started:

- Decision time: narrow down your topic according to the prompt.

- Search for sources that are more precisely related to your chosen topic (see document “How to find sources for your essays”). Try to include academic sources such as articles in peer review journals. These will give you the concrete data you need to support your claims (which a journalistic article might not). Engage your reading strategies to read effectively and efficiently.

-Follow the steps and advice detailed in the course handout “The Essay Process”.

Teacher's instruction:
Hi all,
This email is to inform you of the format as well as some information you could use for the essay. Some ideas, of course, are non-negotiable (thesis for instance) which you need to have. Remember, CA2 focusses on the INTRODUCTION AND THE PROBLEM ONLY. Have a look too at the essay we deconstructed last week. So here goes:

Par 1: Introduction: include the thesis -- the problem at the end of the introduction; think about one -- impact/cause; Also include the  scope which are the solutions -- say that the current approach is not too effective while the other is an improved/new measure. 

Par 2: Describe the problem: why it is a serious problem etc

Par 3: Other implications of the above issue (so shows that this issue is definitely worth considering as there are other consequencecs as well).

Length: About 500 -- 600 words;
Follow the format given to you for the synthesis task;
Include the rubrics at the end;
You may think about them, but DO NOT WRITE THE SOLUTIONS.
Upload by;Sat, 1 June, 11:59pm.

-> impact and the sol to solve the impact

Search links:
- Project MUSE
- Jtsor
- NUS library
- Google scholar

Topic: Social Media application : Misleading and wrong information

Black, J. E. (2002). The “mascotting” of Native America: Construction, commodity, and assimilation. American Indian Quarterly, 26, 605–622. doi:10.1353/aiq.2004.0003

References

Matsa K.E., Shearer E.  (2018). News use Across Social Media Platforms 2018. Pew Research Center, Journalism and Media. Retrieved from: https://www.journalism.org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/

Thai T., Weili Wu, et al. (2016). Big Data in Complex and Social networks (Chapman & Hall/ CRC Big Data series. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CA4NDgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA125&ots=wEmI4bfC59&dq=social%20media%20misinformation%20&lr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=social%20media%20misinformation&f=false

Fox (2018). Fake news: Lies spread faster on social media than truth does. NBCnews

Retrieved from: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fake-news-lies-spread-faster-social-media-truth-does-n854896

Shelby A, Ernst K (2013). Story and Science: how providers and parents can utilize storytelling to combat anti-vaccine misinformation. Human vaccine and Immunotherapeutics.

MacDonald NE., Vivion M., Dube E. (2015). Vaccine hesitancy, vaccine refusal and the anti-vaccine movement: Influence, impact and implications. biologia.gr

Dube E, Laberge C, Guay M (2013). Vaccine hesitancy An overview. Retrieve from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.4161/hv.24657 

Salathe M, Khandelwal S (2011). Assessing vaccination sentiments with online social media: Implication for infectious disease dynamic and control. PLoS computational biology.

Brunson Ek (2013). The impact of social networks on parents vaccination decisions. pdfs.semanticscholar.org

Vanderslott S, Roser M (2015). Vaccination. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/vaccination#how-vaccines-work-herd-immunity-and-reasons-for-caring-about-broad-vaccination-coverage

Mundasad (2018). BBC news: Measles resurgence due to vaccine hesitancy, WHO warns. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46387167

Draft:

The impact of misinformation on social media in the US

Social media misinformation in the US is the unintentional and intentional spread of rumours and false news using social media (Thai, Wu, et.al, 2016). According to Matsa and Shearer (2018), about 68 per cent of Americans receive news on social media. However, it is these social media that led to the spread of false information which in turn impacted the people in the US well-being negatively by preventing the spread of authentic news. According to Fox (2018), it is found that false news was 70 per cent more likely to be shared compared to credible news. The spread of false news regarding vaccines would give many parents misconception about vaccines which would prevent children from getting vaccinated properly against VPD. Their children are then more vulnerable to these diseases which could have been easily prevented using vaccines, affecting the health of themselves and the people around them by allowing the spread of these diseases. This essay will describe the negative impacts of the spread of misinformation using social media on the wellbeing of the people of the US, discuss a current solution and suggest an improvement to the current solution.

The spread of false news through social media led to the misconception of vaccines which in turn discourage parents from vaccination of their children leading to the spread of VPD, affecting children in the US health. This is eminent in the case of anti-vaccinators in the US whereby social media is used to spread untrue news about vaccination. According to Shelby (2017), due to the lack of evidence to support the claims of danger due to vaccination, anti-vaccine activist depends on the spread of false information on vaccines through the use of social media using fabricated stories and photographs taken from unrelated sources. The actions of these activists led to an increase in vaccine refusal and delayed vaccine schedules. According to a 2009 National Immunization survey in the US as quoted by Shelby (2017), among parents of children age 24 to 35 months, 25.8 per cent admitted to delaying vaccines and 8.2 per cent refused the vaccine. Due to the refusal of vaccination, the spread of deadly diseases which could have been prevented by vaccination increased. According to MacDonald (2015), there were many recent outbreaks of VPD (Vaccine-preventable diseases) due to under-vaccinated or non-vaccinated communities. MacDonald (2015) also found that parents in the US that had delayed or refused vaccines are more likely to have researched about vaccines through social media which is prominent in incorrect information rather than approaching healthcare providers and authorities. According to Brunson (2013), parents in the US rely on the internet to retrieve information and advice pertaining to vaccines. The spread of misleading information through social media convinced many to stop allowing their children to received vaccination thus leading to the problem of repeated increase in VPD which could have been stopped if parents had received authentic information.

VPD outbreaks could be easily prevented but due to the spread of false information on social media, many people are still suffering from VPD. According to Dube, Laberge and Guay (2013), pertussis, a type of contagious VPD which affects the respiratory system, could have been prevented. However, due to the increasing controversies spread across social media regarding the safety of the vaccines posted by anti-vaccination activist, the uptake for pertussis vaccination plans declined. (2013). The convenience of social media allows the anti-vaccination activist to easily spread false information pertaining to their cause, convincing many parents to not vaccinate their children. According to Salathe and Khandelwal (2011), social media containing similar opinion towards vaccination would lead to an increase in the probability of large outbreaks of diseases. Salathe and Khandelwal (2011) added that there is growing evidence from other studies that show that due to the serious social clustering of exemption of vaccination, there is an increasing risk of VPD outbreaks. Brunson (2013) also agrees that rather than rejecting vaccination decisions independently, they are more likely to follow the decisions made by their social networks. This highlights how dangerous the spread of misleading information in social media about vaccines as it could easily dissuade parents from vaccination.

According to Vanderslott and Roser (2015), vaccines have greatly decreased the pervasiveness of diseases however, many people do not realise the importance of vaccination on a global scale. Vanderslott and Roser (2015) further stated that vaccines were able to eradicate certain VPD such as smallpox in 1980 which previously had killed a hundred thousand people every year. However, the spread of misleading information on social media will prevent further eradication of other VPD such as polio that is close to being eradicated due to the spread of false information regarding vaccination. According to WHO as stated by Mundasad (2018), there is a 30 per cent rise of measles cases in 2017 in comparison to 2016. Mundasad (2018) further stated that the rise of fake news about vaccines which supposedly be able to prevent measles is behind the rise of the cases. Overall, the rise of VPD affecting the health of the people is caused by the rise and spread of false information through social media in the personal networks of parents leading to the decline in vaccination of their children, vaccination which would have prevented the spread of VPD and defend the health of the children, the parents and the people around them.