MISINFORMATION AND COVID-19 INFODEMIC: IDENTIFYING OFFLINE SOCIAL SPACES FOR INFODEMIC DIFFUSION IN COMMUNITIES IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study argued that there is an intersection between social media and informal offline social spaces and for the world to win the war against the infodemic’ on COVID-19, there is a compelling need to disseminate information on COVID-19 and its safety protocols in informal offline social spaces for community information dissemination where even the vulnerable population in communities have access to. A qualitative case study design with embedded cases was adopted in this study. Ten participants purposively selected from three tea houses that were chosen for the study were interviewed. Findings indicated six informal channels of information dissemination existed in Samaru community, Kaduna State. They are businesses, local hangouts, and venues for ceremonies, transportation, service, stations, essential services and workspaces. The paper recommended diffusing information on coronavirus in these channels as they are used by people of different social classes in the community as information sources. Information emanating from these spaces are also trusted by people in the community.