Abstract
This case study resulted from a public information project titled “COVID-19: Facts vs Rumors” (C-19), which ran November 2020 to May 2021. C-19 was designed to improve the quality of pandemic-related information that audiences in Bulgaria were receiving at the time. It reached 15,000 followers, with some video materials being watched by upwards to 150,000 viewers. The analysis took a deeper look at some 2,500 Facebook accounts of users who demonstrated aggressive online behavior (a.k.a., “trolling”) in their posted comments on C-19. These posted texts were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, while users were sorted by geolocation, age, gender, education, group affiliations, etc. Certain preliminary conclusions were drawn that allowed for a basic classification of these trolls. For instance, a distinction was made between completely fake accounts (non-existent people or stolen identities) and those who displayed trolling behavior coming from legitimately existing Facebook users. While fake accounts (bots) used fairly predictable words to respond to posts on C-19, the existing users differed greatly in their particular vocabulary choices but kept using the same overall “talking points” in discussions on the pandemic-related issues such as treatment, vaccination, health dangers and others. The paper further discusses “fake news”, trolling, foreign influences (particularly Russian) in the Bulgarian media ecosystem. The case study concludes with practical solutions that could be implemented in the near and medium term to improve the media situation in Bulgaria and especially the communication related to health matters.
Presenters
Christopher KaradjovAssociate Professor, Journalism and Public Relations, California State University, Long Beach, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Covid-19, Social Media, Trolls, Fake News
