GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT
Misinformation spreads largely via Social media sites and as a result, understanding what can be done to discourage the sharing of and belief in false or misleading stories online is a question of great concern. The study therefore sought to assess ways of combating social media misinformation in Nigeria. Expost-facto survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of medical doctors, librarians, and journalist in Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 36 respondents which constituted the sample size. The instrument used for data collection was an interview schedule titled “COVID-19 PANDEMIC: COMBATING SOCIAL MEDIA MISINFORMATION IN NIGERIA QUESTIONNAIRE” (CPCSMMNQ). The instrument so developed was made to pass through face and content validation by experts. Instrument reliability was tested using Cronbach reliability test at 0.86 coefficient. The data obtained was analyzed using the descriptive statistics. The result tested for significance at 0.05 alpha level. The study concluded that social media is the leading platform for misinformation on COVID-19. It also concluded that there is significant influence of strategies of combating COVID-19 pandemic misinformation on the extent of prevalence of the misinformation on social media. One of the recommendations made was that source of information and the source’s source should be considered before consuming or sharing information to ensure accuracy and avoid raising panic.
KEYWORDS: Combating, Covid-19, Pandemic, Misinformation, Social media, Nigeria.