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Mammola S, Malumbres-Olarte J, Arabesky V, Barrales-Alcalá DA, Barrion-Dupo AL, Benamú MA, Bird TL, Bogomolova M, Cardoso P, Chatzaki M, Cheng RC, Chu TA, Classen-Rodríguez LM, Čupić I, Dhiya'ulhaq NU, Drapeau Picard AP, El-Hennawy HK, Elverici M, Fukushima CS, Ganem Z, Gavish-Regev E, Gonnye NT, Hacala A, Haddad CR, Hesselberg T, Tian Ho TA, Into T, Isaia M, Jayaraman D, Karuaera N, Khalap R, Khalap K, Kim D, Korhonen T, Kralj-Fišer S, Land H, Lin SW, Loboda S, Lowe E, Lubin Y, Martínez A, Mbo Z, Miličić M, Kioko GM, Nanni V, Norma-Rashid Y, Nwankwo D, Painting CJ, Pang A, Pantini P, Pavlek M, Pearce R, Petcharad B, Pétillon J, Raberahona OC, Russo P, Saarinen JA, Segura-Hernández L, Sentenská L, Uhl G, Walker L, Warui CM, Wiśniewski K, Zamani A, Chuang A, Scott C. The global spread of misinformation on spiders. Curr Biol 2022; 32:R871-R873. [PMID: 35998593 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
In the internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may also amplify the spread of misinformation. This problem is gaining global attention, as evidence accumulates that misinformation may interfere with democratic processes and undermine collective responses to environmental and health crises1,2. In an increasingly polluted information ecosystem, understanding the factors underlying the generation and spread of misinformation is becoming a pressing scientific and societal challenge3. Here, we studied the global spread of (mis-)information on spiders using a high-resolution global database of online newspaper articles on spider-human interactions, covering stories of spider-human encounters and biting events published from 2010-20204. We found that 47% of articles contained errors and 43% were sensationalist. Moreover, we show that the flow of spider-related news occurs within a highly interconnected global network and provide evidence that sensationalism is a key factor underlying the spread of misinformation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Mammola
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Molecular Ecology Group (MEG), Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IRSA), Largo Tonolli 50, 28922 Verbania Pallanza, Italy.
| | - Jagoba Malumbres-Olarte
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; CE3C - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes / Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, Angra do Heroísmo, Azores, Portugal
| | - Valeria Arabesky
- Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel; Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel
| | | | - Aimee Lynn Barrion-Dupo
- Environmental Biology Division, Institute of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences and Museum of Natural History, University of the Philippines Los Banos, 4031, Philippines
| | - Marco Antonio Benamú
- Centro Universitario de Rivera, Universidad de la República, Uruguay; Lab. Ecotoxicología de Artrópodos Terrestres, Centro Univeritario de Rivera, Universidad de la República, Uruguay; Laboratorio Ecología del Comportamiento, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas clemente Estable (IIBCE), Uruguay
| | - Tharina L Bird
- Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, PO Box 4197, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa; Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa
| | | | - Pedro Cardoso
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Maria Chatzaki
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece
| | - Ren-Chung Cheng
- Department of Life sciences, National Chung Hsing University, No.145 Xingda Rd., South Dist., Taichung City 402204, Taiwan
| | - Tien-Ai Chu
- Department of Life sciences, National Chung Hsing University, No.145 Xingda Rd., South Dist., Taichung City 402204, Taiwan
| | - Leticia M Classen-Rodríguez
- Department of Biology, Macelwane Hall, 3507 Laclede Avenue, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA
| | - Iva Čupić
- Croatian Biospeleological Society, Rooseveltov trg 6, Zagreb, Croatia
| | | | | | | | - Mert Elverici
- Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, Faculty of Science and Arts, Biology Department, 24002, Erzincan, Turkey
| | - Caroline S Fukushima
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Zeana Ganem
- The National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel; The Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel
| | - Efrat Gavish-Regev
- The National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel
| | - Naledi T Gonnye
- Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana
| | - Axel Hacala
- UMR CNRS 6553 Ecobio, Université de Rennes, 263 Avenue du Gal Leclerc, CS 74205, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France
| | - Charles R Haddad
- Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
| | | | - Tammy Ai Tian Ho
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore
| | - Thanakorn Into
- Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University, Rangsit, Pathum Thani, 12121, Thailand
| | - Marco Isaia
- Department of Life Science and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina, 13 - 10123 Torino, Italy
| | - Dharmaraj Jayaraman
- PG and Research Department of Zoology, Sri Vijay Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science, Nallampalli, Dharmapuri-636807, Tamilnadu, India
| | | | | | - Kiran Khalap
- 5A Sagar Sangeet, SBS Marg, Mumbai 400005, India
| | - Dongyoung Kim
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
| | - Tuuli Korhonen
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Simona Kralj-Fišer
- Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Heidi Land
- University of Greifswald, Zoological Institute and Museum, General and Systematic Zoology, Loitzerstrasse 26, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Shou-Wang Lin
- University of Greifswald, Zoological Institute and Museum, General and Systematic Zoology, Loitzerstrasse 26, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Sarah Loboda
- Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, 21 111 Lakeshore Road, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, H9X 3V9, Canada
| | - Elizabeth Lowe
- Department of Biological Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2122, Australia
| | - Yael Lubin
- Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel; Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, University in Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel
| | - Alejandro Martínez
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Zingisile Mbo
- Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
| | - Marija Miličić
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; BioSense Institute - Research Institute for Information Technologies in Biosystems, University of Novi Sad, Dr Zorana Ðind-ića 1, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
| | - Grace Mwende Kioko
- National Museums of Kenya, Museum Hill, P.O. BOX 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Veronica Nanni
- Department of Life Science and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina, 13 - 10123 Torino, Italy; School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Science, Technology and Society Department, 25100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Yusoff Norma-Rashid
- Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | - Daniel Nwankwo
- Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria
| | - Christina J Painting
- Te Aka Ma(-)tuatua School of Science, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
| | | | - Paolo Pantini
- Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali "E. Caffi", Piazza Cittadella, 10, I-24129 Bergamo, Italy
| | - Martina Pavlek
- Croatian Biospeleological Society, Rooseveltov trg 6, Zagreb, Croatia; Rud(-)er Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Richard Pearce
- Biodiversity Research Laboratory, Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire College University Centre, Warwickshire, UK
| | - Booppa Petcharad
- Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University, Rangsit, Pathum Thani, 12121, Thailand
| | - Julien Pétillon
- UMR CNRS 6553 Ecobio, Université de Rennes, 263 Avenue du Gal Leclerc, CS 74205, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France; Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
| | | | - Philip Russo
- Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil
| | - Joni A Saarinen
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | | | - Lenka Sentenská
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON M1C 1A4, Canada
| | - Gabriele Uhl
- University of Greifswald, Zoological Institute and Museum, General and Systematic Zoology, Loitzerstrasse 26, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Leilani Walker
- School of Science, Auckland University of Technology, 55 Wellesley Street East, Auckland 1010, New Zealand; Te Pu-naha Matatini, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Charles M Warui
- Murang'a University of Technology, Department of Physical & Biological Sciences, P.O. Box 75-10200, Murang'a, Kenya
| | - Konrad Wiśniewski
- Institute of Biology and Earth Sciences, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Arciszewskiego 22a, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland
| | - Alireza Zamani
- Zoological Museum, Biodiversity Unit, FI-20014, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Angela Chuang
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Department of Entomology and Nematology, Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Lake Alfred, Florida, USA
| | - Catherine Scott
- Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, 21 111 Lakeshore Road, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, H9X 3V9, Canada
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Nanni V, Mammola S, Macías-Hernández N, Castrogiovanni A, Salgado AL, Lunghi E, Ficetola GF, Modica C, Alba R, Spiriti MM, Holtze S, de Mello ÉM, De Mori B, Biasetti P, Chamberlain D, Manenti R. Global response of conservationists across mass media likely constrained bat persecution due to COVID-19. BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION 2022; 272:109591. [PMID: 35603331 PMCID: PMC9110911 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2022] [Revised: 05/01/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2022] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Most people lack direct experience with wildlife and form their risk perception primarily on information provided by the media. The way the media frames news may substantially shape public risk perception, promoting or discouraging public tolerance towards wildlife. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, bats were suggested as the most plausible reservoir of the virus, and this became a recurrent topic in media reports, potentially strengthening a negative view of this ecologically important group. We investigated how media framed bats and bat-associated diseases before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by assessing the content of 2651 online reports published across 26 countries, to understand how and how quickly worldwide media may have affected the perception of bats. We show that the overabundance of poorly contextualized reports on bat-associated diseases likely increased the persecution towards bats immediately after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the subsequent interventions of different conservation communication initiatives allowed pro-conservation messages to resonate across the global media, likely stemming an increase in bat persecution. Our results highlight the modus operandi of the global media regarding topical biodiversity issues, which has broad implications for species conservation. Knowing how the media acts is pivotal for anticipating the propagation of (mis)information and negative feelings towards wildlife. Working together with journalists by engaging in dialogue and exchanging experiences should be central in future conservation management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronica Nanni
- School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Science, Technology and Society Department, 25100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Stefano Mammola
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Molecular Ecology Group (MEG), Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IRSA), Largo Tonolli 50, 28922 Verbania Pallanza, Italy
| | - Nuria Macías-Hernández
- Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Animal Biology, Edaphology and Geology, University of Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife 38206, Canary Islands, Spain
| | - Alessia Castrogiovanni
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Cleoria, 10, 20133 Milano, Italy
| | - Ana L Salgado
- Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
| | - Enrico Lunghi
- Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenicka cesta 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Gentile Francesco Ficetola
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Cleoria, 10, 20133 Milano, Italy
| | - Corrado Modica
- Faunico office of species protection, Leanderstraße 16, 54295 Trier, Germany
| | - Riccardo Alba
- Dept. of Life Science and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina, 13, 10123 Torino, Italy
| | - Maria Michela Spiriti
- Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, 35020 Padua, Italy
- Ethics Laboratory for Veterinary Medicine, Conservation and Animal Welfare, University of Padua, 35020 Padua, Italy
| | - Susanne Holtze
- Department of Reproduction Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, 10315 Berlin, Germany
| | - Érica Munhoz de Mello
- Urban Bats Laboratory, Zoonoses Control Center of Belo Horizonte, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Barbara De Mori
- Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, 35020 Padua, Italy
| | - Pierfrancesco Biasetti
- Department of Reproduction Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, 10315 Berlin, Germany
| | - Dan Chamberlain
- Dept. of Life Science and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina, 13, 10123 Torino, Italy
| | - Raoul Manenti
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Cleoria, 10, 20133 Milano, Italy
- Laboratory of Subterranean Biology "Enrico Pezzoli", Parco Regionale del Monte Barro, 23851 Galbiate, Italy
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