Nature Returns: Dolphins and Dinosaurs. On Fake News, Photoshop Urban Legends and Memes during the COVID-19 Lockdown

L’article traça un rastre narratiu alimentat per publicacions i notícies falses a les xarxes socials durant els primers mesos de la quarantena de la COVID-19 sobre com la reducció de la contaminació causada per la quarantena suposadament tindria un efecte positiu en el medi ambient i la natura es recuperaria. L’estudi aporta llum al context del tema i observa el canvi de la retòrica a través de les matrius culturals de diversos gèneres. La discussió rau en el fet de si una imatge és capaç d’explicar una història creïble. Si aquest és el cas, quina relació hi ha entre context, veritat i retòrica i quin paper hi juga l’humor en tot això? Pel que fa a aquest tema, però, és fàcil observar com la visibilitat, que en les fake news forma part de la retòrica de la veritat, ja que el text va acompanyat d’una fotografia que representa l’esdeveniment, s’ha transformat en la crítica vernacular de la mateixa veritat. Pel que fa al material que es presenta aquí, un investigador de llegenda contemporània no pot ignorar els motius de llegenda utilitzats en les narracions visuals virals conegudes com mems.The article traces a narrative trail of social media posts and fake news in the early months of COVID-19 about how the reduction in pollution caused by the lockdown will allegedly have such a positive effect on the environment that nature will be restored. The study sheds light on this context and observes the change in rhetoric through the cultural matrices of various genres. It discusses whether an image is capable of telling a credible story. If it can, what is the relationship between context, truth and rhetoric and what role does humour play? In this article, however, the texts are accompanied by photographs depicting the events so it is easy to observe how visuality, which in fake news is part of the truth rhetoric, transforms into a vernacular critique of the truth itself. As to the material presented here, a contemporary legend researcher cannot ignore the legend motifs used in the viral visual narratives known as memes

Vernacular reactions to COVID-19 in Estonia: Crisis folklore and coping

Abstract: The objective of the article is to give an overview of the vernacular reactions to the corona crisis in Estonia, based on COVID-19-related folklore collected from written, oral, and online sources from March to June 2020, i.e., during  the emergency situation established due to the coronavirus. The methodological approach of the article was a context-dependent comparative content analysis studying the functioning of thematic texts in the wider trans- and multi-media communicative process. The similarities and modifications in the content, structure, format, and function of the subject matter as well as people’s attitudes, expressions, ways of information synthesis and narrative generation in the respective social context were placed under the microscope. By giving examples of thematic religious lore, memes, and proverbs, we point out how certain core motifs and core texts become actualised whenever a new epidemic occurs. We presume that the recycling of known and tested motifs in order to give meaning to the situation helps mitigate the unpredictability arising from the epidemic and determine the borders of danger and safety with the help of narrative, thereby increasing the sense of coping, although some folk motifs may also create or deepen fears and irrational behaviour.Keywords: belief narratives, memes, proverbs, recycled folklore motifs, vernacular reactions to COVID-1</p

Paraisong Nawala: Exploring Sustainable Ecotourism in the Philippines

Ecotourism, environmentally responsible travel to natural areas, is a growing industry that has the ability to bring invaluable tourism revenue to countries with flourishing natural environments. The Philippines has the potential to be an ecotourism hotspot, and if implemented correctly, ecotourism could enable the alleviation of poverty in the Philippines as well as contribute to the conservation of the Philippines’ natural resources. By examining three destinations in the Philippines and their ecotourism viability as well as the challenges that these areas face, this thesis explores how the Philippines can benefit greatly from well implemented sustainable ecotourism strategies. Management of ecotourism in the Philippines is currently fragmented and many stressors inhibit successful implementation, including the high rates of poverty and corruption that the country faces. The Philippines is also extremely vulnerable to the effects of the impending climate crisis, which further exacerbate environmental issues in the country and threaten the developing country’s growth. Looking at other countries in Southeast Asia and how they manage over-abundance of tourists can help develop a framework of how the Philippines can change the way they view and engage with tourism

Correcting Fear-arousing Disinformation on Social Media in the Spread of a Health Virus: A Focus on Situational Fear, Situational Threat Appraisal, Belief in Disinformation, and Intention to Spread Disinformation on Social Media

Disinformation is prevalent in the current social media environment and circulated just as quickly as truthful information. Research has investigated what motivates the spread of disinformation and how to combat it. However, limited research focuses on how fear-arousing disinformation during crises affects individuals’ belief in disinformation and to what extent corrective information can subdue the persuasive effects of fear-arousing disinformation. To address this gap, this research tests the effects of fear-arousing disinformation and different types of corrective information (i.e., no corrective information, simple corrective information, or narrative corrective information) on belief in disinformation and intentions to spread disinformation on social media, during a crisis—the spread of an unknown health virus. Furthermore, adapting the important roles of situational fear and threat appraisal in predicting people’s health behavioral changes, this research examines the underlying psychological mechanisms of fear and threat appraisal of a crisis in the effects of fear-arousing disinformation and different types of corrective information on belief in disinformation and intentions to spread disinformation on social media. Study 1 tests the interaction between fear-arousing disinformation and the presence of corrective information. Therefore, a 2 by 2 experiment was conducted in Study 1: disinformation (fear-neutral disinformation vs. fear-arousing disinformation) × corrective information (no corrective information vs. simple corrective information). Study 2 advances Study 1 by testing whether narrative corrective information decreases belief in disinformation. Study 2 conducted a 2 by 2 experiment (disinformation: fear-neutral disinformation vs. fear-arousing disinformation × corrective information: simple corrective information vs. narrative corrective information). A total of 419 data collected between January and February 2019 from Amazon MTurk were analyzed (205 for Study 1 and 214 for Study 2). The current research notes several key findings: 1) Fear-arousing disinformation does not make people believe the disinformation under risky situations and it can even make people avoid the disinformation content as a coping strategy when there is no corrective information presented. 2) Simple corrective information serves as an effective corrective information strategy when fear-neutral disinformation is shown but can backfire when fear-arousing disinformation is presented. 3) Corrective information that features individual narratives does not differ from simple alerts on their abilities to reduce misperceptions, situational fear, situational threat appraisal, and intentions to spread disinformation on social media. 4) Across individual differences, social media usage (i.e., social media use for news, social media use for fact-finding, and social media use for social interaction, health blog usage) emerges as significant factors that decide disinformation and corrective information processing. By testing effects of disinformation in terms of fear-arousal, which reflects a crisis of the spread of a health virus, this research addressed how fear-arousing disinformation and different forms of corrective information affect beliefs in disinformation and willingness to spread disinformation on social media, and how situational fear and situational threat appraisal may play their roles in the belief in disinformation mechanism