Misinformation in Social Media During Disasters

Abstract

The study was focused on the impact of social media and misinformation during the distress. The type of information shared in social network depends on the people behavior. During the distress the impulsive behavior will result in sharing of the misinformation unknowingly which will affect the people already in distress. The paper investigates the impact of social networks in the distressed areas due to natural calamity. The data was collected from the distressed area by offline mode and from other areas by online mode. The target informants were the affected people and the people involved in the relief and rescue operations. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to test whether the data fit for the hypothesized model. The study revealed that the social media played a crucial role in the relief and rescue operations and at the same time the misinformation has halted the operations in some places.