This week, we spoke to Susan Channa, who previously worked at Emory during the time of the pandemic and helped to clarify information about COVID-19. She provided an in-depth presentation of how to handle the media if one were to interview with the press. As the CDC was unable to clearly provide necessary information to the public, other institutions, such as Emory helped to fill that gap.
Susan Channa’s work is especially important as science communication is clearly lacking in the general public. It’s not as if most people can pick up a generic scientific article and understand it. Because the CDC and other public health institutions have been unable to clearly and effectively communicate to the public, others have stepped up to fill the void. While most have good intentions, such as Emory, and others simply make mistakes, this has also provided the perfect breeding ground for misinformation to spread, such as through the conspiracy theory, QAnon.
So what factors of QAnon make it so effective in its communication? One of the answers lies in its ability to communicate. Some describe the conspiracy theory as a game, akin to Dungeons & Dragons, where anyone can contribute to the story that they’ve crafted. QAnon platforms employ memes and a way of interaction that makes you believe that you have come up with new ideas and see novel patterns. In this, accessibility is increased, so anyone can join and contribute towards a community of like-minded people that ultimately becomes addicting. It does not help that social media algorithms are able to easily recommend similar groups that serve as the gateway to this cycle. Furthermore, social media influencers gain trust and perpetrate the lies for their own financial or other personal gains.
But why did QAnon conspiracies gain traction in the first place? Most of this can be attributed to growing partisanship and distrust in the government. When the CDC sends out unclear, mixed messaging at one of the most vulnerable times in recent memory, and the President of the United States, the most powerful person in the United States, is contradicting that messaging, it’s no surprise that people look to alternative sources for an all-encompassing explanation of their world. And this is what QAnon achieves.
Hi Emie,
I really enjoyed your blog post, specifically your comment about people being drawn to QAnon because it makes them feel like they are coming up with new ideas and discovering patterns or flaws in society. I think when there are problems we don’t know how to solve, some people really gravitate to an answer that takes the onus off them and places it on minority groups or government. It really speaks to the void Susan Channa was talking about, where in the gap of accurate, easy-to-understand information surrounding COVID, misinformation sprouts up like weeds. I wonder how succinct, accurate, and accountable communication would be perceived by people caught in QAnon. What kind of communication do you think would bring them out of that web and into scientific fact?
Great post Emie. So my question for you is, what is the alternative and/or how do we respond to conspiracy theories touted by groups like QAnon? How can we communicate with the public clearly and directly so that they have the information they need to make healthy choices? I am someone who believes deeply in evidence based scientific research and who looked to the CDC for their leadership during this pandemic and found their information to be lacking, so I turned to local epidemiologist and doctors who did a better job of breaking down the ever changing information about COVID. Where did/do you get your information about COVID?