Post 1 <\/p>\n
Who is sharing the post? What kind of account are they?<\/p>\n
This is a Twitter post from the personal account of Ben Tapper (since removed due to misinformation). He is a chiropractor and social media influencer based in Omaha, Nebraska who has routinely posted about COVID misinformation and against masking. He is self-described as a “Dr” but is not a medical doctor. He is one of the “disinformation dozen”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How does the post make its information seem reliable or scientific?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The post uses numbers and “data” to seem reliable or scientific. The goal of the post is to minimize the covid epidemic and make it appear that the health mandates are about government control, not health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Does the post present itself as some kind of authority? How?<\/p>\n
Ben’s handle is @drbentapper1. He is self-described as a “Dr” but is not a medical doctor. He uses the Dr title to gain the perception of the authority of medical knowledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
What narratives does the post use to appeal to audiences?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Does the post present itself as being more free-thinking than those who follow the establishment?<\/p>\n
The post is meant to put the COVID pandemic in perspective. Indeed there are other issues such as cancer and obesity affecting the US population that need to be addressed, but also the COVID pandemic. The author speaks about control and thus, those opposed to the control are “free thinkers”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What options are being offered? A kind of treatment or supplement? A practice?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The options offered are to reject the government mandates regarding COVID-19 including masking, social distancing, and vaccinations. By rejecting these, the reader becomes a “free thinker” and independent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If the post uses scientific sources, have a look at them. Why do they seem reliable?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Does the post accurately represent the sources they cite? Why or why not?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The post quotes US population data regarding obesity and cancer (Ahmad & Anderson, 2021). Although the data is accurate, the tweet does not cite the JAMA article by Ahmad and Anderson. The data is reliable but the context is used to minimize the impact of COVID-19. The tweet failed to report that COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death (345, 323) in the US behind heart disease and cancer. By omitting this data, misinformation is propagated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What does the poster have to gain from posting this misinformation?<\/p>\n
The poster gains a stronger following from COVID-19 deniers, helping him build his base to further propagate COVID-19 misinformation. The goal is to continue to undermine the COVID-19 mitigation efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Ahmad, F. B., & Anderson, R. N. (2021). The Leading Causes of Death in the US for 2020.\u00a0JAMA,\u00a0325(18), 1829\u20131830.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Post 1 Who is sharing the post? What kind of account are they? This is a Twitter post from the personal account of Ben Tapper (since removed due to misinformation). He is a chiropractor and social media influencer based in Omaha, Nebraska who has routinely posted about COVID misinformation and against masking. He is self-described […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-79307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}