The Batsapp Project chronicles the human experience of online misinformation during the 2018 Nipah outbreak. While online misinformation has now permeated our lives, the Nipah response is a positive story of how the individuals, communities and institutions most affected by misinformation came together to fight it. This series is set in the picturesque Indian state of Kerala, whose public health establishment received global acclaim for its management of the deadly Nipah outbreak. We also talk to international experts about the ways in which our mind processes misinformation and what this means for risk communication during outbreaks.
Episodes
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Summary
A mysterious virus is consuming human lives in northern Kerala. Fear, panic and uncertainty start sowing the seeds of misinformation among the communities.
Team
Executive Producer & Principal Investigator: Santosh Vijaykumar
Podcast Producer: Amrita Singh
Podcast Co-Producer: Aarti Sahasranaman
Graphic Designer: Swati Sharma
Music Credits
1. “Outside Visitors” by Sarah Santana
2. “Folk Secrets Music Project” by Vayali Bamboo Band
3. “Timelapsed Tides” by Asher Fulero
4. “Magical Glade” by Soul Candle
5. “Spirit of the Dead” by Aakash Gandhi
6. “Walk into the Village” by Vayali Bamboo Band
News Audio Clippings
1. Nipah Virus Claims 10 Lives In Kerala, 2 Critical (NDTV, May 2018)
2. Kerala's Battle With Nipah (CNBC-TV18, May 2018)
3. Deadly Nipah virus claims lives in India (Al Jazeera English, May 2018)
4. Nipah Virus Claims 2 More Lives In Kerala's Kozhikode; Death Toll Rises To 15 (NDTV, May 2018)
5. Is India Fully Equipped To Handle The Nipah Outbreak? | Faceoff With Zakka Jacob (CNN-News18, June 2019)
References
1. “How Sabith contracted Nipah virus: Kerala anthropologist traces first victim’s life”, The News Minute, October 4, 2018
2. “Tracking Nipah outbreak: Sabith, Patient No. 1 infected all but one”, The Indian Express, July 15, 2018
3. “Nipah virus: Anatomy of an outbreak”, The Hindu, June 2, 2018
“Dr G Arun Kumar interview on Nipah Virus outbreak in Calicut”, Youtube, June 6, 2018
4. “Tracking the Nipah Virus”, Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine, Fall 2019
5. “Nipah Virus (NiV)”, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 20, 2014
6. “First Nipah casualty did eat fruits bitten by bats: Probe”, OnManorama, October 3, 2018
7. “Lini Puthuserry died of the Nipah virus on May 21st”, The Economist, June 2, 2018
8. “WHO pays tribute to Kerala nurse who died of Nipah virus infection”, The Hindu, June 5, 2018
9. “Kerala nurse Lini who died treating Nipah patient honoured with Florence Nightingale award”, The Indian Express, December 6, 2019
10. “Life in the time of Nipah”, The Times of India, June 2, 2018
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Summary
Online misinformation in now flying around in various forms, threatening to derail the Nipah response. Quick and nimble coordinated responses start emerging.
Team
Executive Producer & Principal Investigator: Santosh Vijaykumar
Podcast Producer: Amrita Singh
Podcast Co-Producer: Aarti Sahasranaman
Graphic Designer: Swati Sharma
Music Credits
1. “Under Cover” by Wayne Jones
2. “Dark Toys” by SYBS
3. “Resolution” by Wayne Jones
4. “The battle of 1066” by Patrick Patrikios
5. “Nocturnally” by Amulets
6. “Digital Dreaming”, Music by CO.AG
7. “One”, (Album: Navarasam) by Thaikkudam Bridge
8. “Raga - Dance of Music” by Aakash Gandhi
References
1. Zarocostas, J. (2020). "How to fight an infodemic." The Lancet 395(10225): 676.
2. GOV.UK (2020). "Government cracks down on spread of false coronavirus information online." Retrieved May 7, 2020, from https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-cracks-down-on-spread-of-false-coronavirus-information-online.
3. Smith, R. D. (2006). "Responding to global infectious disease outbreaks: lessons from SARS on the role of risk perception, communication and management." Social science & medicine 63(12): 3113-3123.
4. McAlonan, G. M., et al. (2007). "Immediate and sustained psychological impact of an emerging infectious disease outbreak on health care workers." The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 52(4): 241-247.
5. Joffe, H. (2011). "Public apprehension of emerging infectious diseases: are changes afoot?" Public Understanding of Science 20(4): 446-460
Wagner-Egger, P., et al. (2011). "Lay perceptions of collectives at the outbreak of the H1N1 epidemic: heroes, villains and victims." Public Understanding of Science 20(4): 461-476.
6. Livemint (2020). "How WhatsApp forwards on coronavirus broke the ₹1 tn Indian poultry industry." Retrieved May 7, 2020, from https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/how-whatsapp-forwards-on-coronavirus-broke-the-1-7-bn-indian-poultry-industry-11584715653782.html.
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Summary
Experts tell us about how misinformation plays into our psychological instincts and how news and data literacy can help us build misinformation resilient societies.
Team
Executive Producer & Principal Investigator: Santosh Vijaykumar
Podcast Producer: Amrita Singh
Podcast Co-Producer: Aarti Sahasranaman
Graphic Designer: Swati Sharma
Music Credits
1. “Butterflies in Love” by Sir Cubworth
2. “Pippin the Hunchback”, by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Unported license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
3. Source: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1400005
4. Artist: http://incompetech.com/
5. “English Country Garden” by Aaron Kenny
6. “Boardroom Theme” by Unicorn Heads
7. Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
8. Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100433
9. Artist: http://incompetech.com/
References
1. Nyhan, B. and J. Reifler (2010). "When corrections fail: The persistence of political misperceptions." Political Behavior 32(2): 303-330.
2. Nyhan, B., et al. (2014). "Effective messages in vaccine promotion: a randomized trial." Pediatrics 133(4): e835-e842.
3. https://www.who.int/teams/risk-communication/epi-win-updates
4. Briand, S. (2020). "Managing the Infodemic: A critical condition for an effective global response to the COVID-19 pandemic." Retrieved May 8, 2020, from https://www.oecd-forum.org/users/391600-sylvie-briand/posts/66752-managing-the-infodemic-a-critical-condition-for-an-effective-global-response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic.
5. https://www.who.int/teams/risk-communication
6. The Verge (2020). "Facebook was marking legitimate news articles about the coronavirus as spam due to a software bug." Retrieved May 8, 2020, from https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21184445/facebook-marking-coronavirus-posts-spam-misinformation-covid-19.
7. BBC (2020). "Coronavirus: Facebook alters virus action after damning misinformation report." Retrieved May 8, 2020.
8. WhatsApp (2020). "Keeping WhatsApp personal and private." Retrieved May 8, 2020, from https://blog.whatsapp.com/Keeping-WhatsApp-Personal-and-Private.
9. Fast Company (2019). "Pinterest is escalating its fight against anti-vaxxers as measles surge in the U.S.". Retrieved May 8, 2020, from https://www.fastcompany.com/90396075/pinterest-is-escalating-its-fight-against-anti-vaxxers-as-measles-surge-in-the-u-s.
10. TechCrunch (2020). "Facebook, Reddit, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube issue joint statement on misinformation." Retrieved May 8, 2020, from https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/16/facebook-reddit-google-linkedin-microsoft-twitter-and-youtube-issue-joint-statement-on-misinformation/.
11. Verbruggen, Y. (2020). "Covid-19: attempts to curb ‘disinfodemic’ run risk of curtailing freedom of expression." Retrieved May 8, 2020, from https://www.ibanet.org/Article/NewDetail.aspx?ArticleUid=AB409845-E52D-4E01-91EB-2162EBB6E6CF.
12. Vraga, E. K. and M. Tully (2019). "News literacy, social media behaviors, and skepticism toward information on social media." Information, Communication & Society: 1-17.
13. Cook, J., et al. (2017). "Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence." PloS one 12(5).
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Summary
Dr. Devadasan, Director of the Institute of Public Health in Bengaluru reflects on Kerala’s communication management during Nipah and implications for risk communication.
Team
Executive Producer & Principal Investigator: Santosh Vijaykumar
Podcast Producer (Special Features): Aarti Sahasranaman
Graphic Designer: Swati Sharma
Music Credits
"Seven Wonders" by Ziv Moran (Source: Artlist.io, License: 791652)
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Summary
Prof. Patricia Schlagenhauf from the University of Zurich tells us about how travellers are affected by social media misinformation during outbreaks.
Team
Executive Producer & Principal Investigator: Santosh Vijaykumar
Podcast Producer (Special Features): Aarti Sahasranaman
Graphic Designer: Swati Sharma
Music Credits
"Seven Wonders" by Ziv Moran (Source: Artlist.io, License: 791652)
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Summary
Dr. Gaya Gamhewage, Head of Learning at the World Health Organisation talks about how social media disturbs the trust equlibrium during disease outbreaks.
Team
Executive Producer & Principal Investigator: Santosh Vijaykumar
Podcast Producer (Special Features): Aarti Sahasranaman
Graphic Designer: Swati Sharma
Music Credits
"Seven Wonders" by Ziv Moran (Source: Artlist.io, License: 791652)
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Summary
Dr. Anoop Kumar, Chief Intensivist at Baby Memorial Hospital talks about how he used social media to dispel misinformation and reflects on clinicians’ role in addressing the infodemic.
Team
Executive Producer & Principal Investigator: Santosh Vijaykumar
Podcast Producer (Special Features): Aarti Sahasranaman
Graphic Designer: Swati Sharma
Music Credits
"Seven Wonders" by Ziv Moran (Source: Artlist.io, License: 791652)
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Summary
Dr. Claudia Pagliari, Director of Global eHealth at University of Edinburgh tells us about how forming relationships with people we don’t know underpins the misinformation problem.
Team
Executive Producer & Principal Investigator: Santosh Vijaykumar
Podcast Producer (Special Features): Aarti Sahasranaman
Graphic Designer: Swati Sharma
Music Credits
"Seven Wonders" by Ziv Moran (Source: Artlist.io, License: 791652)