Memes, Magnets and Microchips: Narrative dynamics around COVID-19 vaccines

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent vaccine rollout created unprecedented challenges in the online information environment. Authority figures and institutions, operating with incomplete facts and emerging consensus, struggled to communicate with the public and to assess the mis- and disinformation narratives that required response. The public, looking for accurate health information, confronted a glut of claims; the narratives with the largest reach or highest engagement were not necessarily the most reliable. Rumors, misinformation, and disinformation spread rapidly. Social media companies sought to surface accurate information about the pandemic and vaccines, but faced a challenge: What should they curate or amplify in the absence of clear scientific consensus? How should they identify, and moderate, false and misleading claims? It was against this backdrop that the Virality Project was formed. Drawing on scholarship documenting the who, what, and how of the anti-vaccine movement, the Virality Project identified four categories of well-established narratives likely to emerge as key themes in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout: (1) safety, (2) efficacy and necessity, (3) development and distribution, and (4) conspiracy theory. This report details the narratives, actors, and tactics that shaped COVID-19 vaccine conversations within those themes from February to August 2021. In addition, it assesses the interplay between this content and social media platform policies, surfacing the recurring narratives that attempt to question the safety of vaccines and discourage vaccine uptake. Finally, drawing on these observations, the Virality Project team offers policy recommendations for academics, public health experts, government entities, and tech platforms with the goal of engendering a whole-of-society effort to address health misinformation.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND).

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Preferred citation

The Virality Project (2022). Memes, Magnets and Microchips: Narrative dynamics around COVID-19 vaccines. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/mx395xj8490

Each version has a distinct URL, but you can use this PURL to access the latest version.
https://purl.stanford.edu/mx395xj8490

Contact

internetobservatory@stanford.edu

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