The Theme, Pattern, and Implications of Misinfodemic of Covid-19 in West Java Province
Santi Indra Astuti, Rita Gani, Ratri Rizki Kusumalestari

The Faculty of Communication Science, UNISBA

Abstract

The pandemic of Covid-19 creates a multidimensional problem. Not only it is a health problem. Along with the outbreak of virus, here comes also the infodemic. The growth of infodemic has reached a threatening scale and alerted leaders everywhere due to the resulted effects. There are five main themes of infodemic Covid-19, i.e. transmission, cure, behavior, vaccines, and conspiracy suspicion. Interestingly, further investigation on the misinfodemic reveals how the narration of infodemic often intertwined with political theme, or religious based theme. In local context, the politics of local leaders is also at play, and made the effort to deal with the misinfodemic of COVID-19 become a challenging matter. This research is resulted from the analysis of COVID-19 misinfodemic found in local area, namely West Java province. Through the analysis, it is revealed that the misinfodemic of Covid-19 in local context implies the confusion between locals in understanding and identifying the nature of the novel virus. Some of the misinfodemic are quite new, but others are only repeated actions modified from previous hoaxes. A deep insecure feeling for certain ethnic is part of the latest category and reflected potential problem in the future.

Keywords: misinfodemic, covid-19, local context, conspiracy, politics

Topic: New Media: Impacts, Benefits, and Barriers