An exploration of a Maltese audience’s role in the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation through social media

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate whether COVID-19 vaccine misinformation is present among a Maltese Facebook audience, as well as to explore the ways in which digital communities engage with online news and misinformation, all while facing the effects of a global pandemic. Investigative netnography was used to select posts published on the Times of Malta Facebook page between January and June 2021. Comments directly referring to the vaccine were collected, together with Facebook analytics representing audience engagement. The collected linguistic discourse was analysed using critical discourse analysis, thereby extracting contextual meaning from the interaction between social media users. The findings revealed the presence of misinformation in user comments, despite the audience’s attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccine seemingly being balanced. Misinformation was identified in relation to four areas of vaccine misperception: safety, efficacy, function, and immunity. The results also indicate that there is a connection between vaccine misinformation, and poor scientific and media literacy skills. Furthermore, social media audiences do engage with and react to perceived misinformation: often in agreement or disagreement, or to offer corrections.