Open AccessThe “Parallel Pandemic” in the Context of China: The Spread of Rumors and Rumor-Corrections During COVID-19 in Chinese Social Media
Author(s) -
Yunya Song,
K. Hazel Kwon,
Lu Yin,
Yining Fan,
Baiqi Li
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
american behavioral scientist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1552-3381
pISSN - 0002-7642
DOI - 10.1177/00027642211003153
Subject(s) - rumor , social media , context (archaeology) , pandemic , retransmission , china , microblogging , covid-19 , social distance , identity (music) , affect (linguistics) , internet privacy , psychology , advertising , sociology , social psychology , media studies , political science , computer science , history , public relations , business , telecommunications , communication , law , transmission (telecommunications) , medicine , pathology , acoustics , physics , disease , archaeology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Although studies have investigated cyber-rumoring previous to the pandemic, little research has been undertaken to study rumors and rumor-corrections during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. Drawing on prior studies about how online stories become viral, this study will fill that gap by investigating the retransmission of COVID-19 rumors and corrective messages on Sina Weibo, the largest and most popular microblogging site in China. This study examines the impact of rumor types, content attributes (including frames, emotion, and rationality), and source characteristics (including follower size and source identity) to show how they affect the likelihood of a COVID-19 rumor and its correction being shared. By exploring the retransmission of rumors and their corrections in Chinese social media, this study will not only advance scholarly understanding but also reveal how corrective messages can be crafted to debunk cyber-rumors in particular cultural contexts.
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