Beyond Borders | A Year Into COVID-19, Infodemic Thrives and Mutates
Just over a year into the pandemic, there are few signs that we can soon use ‘COVID-19’ in the past tense.
In this very long present moment, the infodemic that the pandemic brought with it is thriving, a year after Thailand reported the first COVID-19 case in Southeast Asia on 13 January 2020.
Our three story picks in this first edition of ‘Beyond Borders’, a newsletter by the Reporting ASEAN series, check out various facets of our shared online spaces in the time of COVID-19.
In the first story, the contact tracing of a viral hoax around alkaline foods shows how lies race across languages and cultures. In the second article, fact-checkers in Myanmar’s already challenging ‘noisy’ online world are playing catch-up with COVID-19 misinformation and its mutations. The third story shows how some Malaysians are doing their own news filtering of sorts.
Take a look, too, at our infographics on Southeast Asians’ views on vaccination.
Coming up soon: Insights from our survey on how Southeast Asians interact with news and misinformation around COVID-19. (Warm thanks to our series partner, the Institute of War and Peace Reporting.)
We’d love to have you subscribe to this newsletter, which brings you cross-border conversations from and about Southeast Asia. (No need to be on social media to get our updates). Do spread the word :)
- Johanna Son |Editor & founder, Reporting ASEAN
1 #fighttheinfodemic
Contact Tracing A COVID-19 Hoax — www.reportingasean.net
YVONNE T CHUA
Remember the hoax claiming that alkaline foods can protect you from COVID-19? The 'contact tracing' of its viral trail shows that as challenging as fact checking is, the work must continue.
Read this in Indonesian
Myanmar's Fact-checkers Try to Catch Up with Infodemic — www.reportingasean.net
MOE MYINT
A year after #COVID19 came to Southeast Asia, the infodemic around it is going strong in Myanmar - and adapting to new issues such as vaccines.
Read this in Burmese | Vietnamese
Vaccine for Misinformation? Good Journalism — www.reportingasean.net
PHILIP GOLINGAI
Misinformation and disinformation around COVID-19 continue to thrive, but Malaysians also have more trust in traditional media these days.
Read this in Vietnamese
2 V is for Vaccine
3 Clickworthy
Burma After the Coup: 'I Have a Sinking Feeling ...'
Thant Myint-U, Burmese author and analyst: "The doors just opened to a very different future. I have a sinking feeling that no one will really be able to control what comes next. "
G.M. Will Sell Only Zero-Emission Vehicles by 2035 — www.nytimes.com The move, one of the most ambitious in the auto industry, is a piece of a broader plan by the company to become carbon neutral by 2040.
'2034,'Peril in the South China Sea (Excerpt from 'A Novel from the Next World War') — www.wired.com “We've got a ship in duress that's sailing without a flag and that hasn't sent out a distress signal. Something doesn't add up.”