Fact-checking as risk communication: the multi-layered risk of misinformation in times of COVID-19

Recommendations

• Problems of trust
• Fact-checkers should build trust instead of just saying or implying they are trustworthy. This could be done by working with actors that are trusted among most of the public, such as the CDC or WHO, in the case of COVID-19 (Kaiser Family Foundation 2020).
• The limits of knowledge
• Fact-checkers should not assume that objectivity will win against emotive and value-laden misinformation. They should make careful use of emotions, possibly by trying to connect corrective information to values many people hold, to concerns that audiences have, and to what they deem important.
• Fact-checking a state of uncertainty
• When fact-checking likely-false information, make it very clear that definite answer may not be known, if that’s the case. Highlighting uncertainties does not impact trust levels (Van Der Bles et al. 2020).

The emergence of the 2019 novel coronavirus has led to more than a pandemic—indeed, COVID-19 is spawning myriad other concerns as it rapidly marches around the globe. One of these concerns is a surge of misinformation, which we argue should be viewed as a risk in its own right, and to which insights from decades of risk communication research must be applied. Further, when the subject of misinformation is itself a risk, as in the case of COVID-19, we argue for the utility of viewing the problem as a multi-layered risk communication problem. In such circumstances, misinformation functions as a meta-risk that interacts with and complicates publics’ perceptions of the original risk. Therefore, as the COVID-19 “misinfodemic” intensifies, risk communication research should inform the efforts of key risk communicators. To this end, we discuss the implications of risk research for efforts to fact-check COVID-19 misinformation and offer practical recommendations.

Keywords: Risk communication, misinformation, trust, uncertainty

Nicole M. Krause, Isabelle Freiling, Becca Beets & Dominique Brossard (2020) Fact-checking as risk communication: the multi-layered risk of misinformation in times of COVID-19, Journal of Risk Research, DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2020.1756385