Shirky argues that public health institutions are right to feel disoriented by the increasing importance of social media. They no longer have a monopoly on information at scale. In fact, communities are often better-equipped and more media-savvy than the institutions long accustomed to controlling the flow and content of information.
He argues that the way to think about the politics of social media is not left versus right, or poor versus rich, but as Insurgents versus Incumbents.

  LISTEN: "What we thought was trust in institutions was an information vaccuum..." (02:16)

People don't believe things based on evidence, and we are competing not against a counter-fact, but a counter-story. And normally a story told or shared by someone known in the community, not an outsider organization.

Shirky argues that we need to increasingly find ways to use stories to impart biomedical information that can protect people, and respect their community traditions, norms and networks.

LISTEN: "It's stories as a way for people who don't have any sense of science as a way of thinking about the world, can still integrate new practices into their life in a way that makes sense..." (04:52)

Shirky compares non-profits to for-profit companies, arguing that evolution in the non-profit sphere actually happens best in moments of crisis.

So rather than a message of doom, he argues that public health organizations will learn how to better respond to these challenges.

LISTEN: "We may actually not just be able to catch up, but do better than we were doing..." (07:13)
 

Global public health campaigns aren't all stuck in the stone age. Here's a few experiences, papers and tools you might learn from.

Bad News!: Get to know a misinformation campaign from the inside in this simple online game. The goal is to get as many followers as you can while slowly building up fake credibility as a news site.

Wellcome Trust's 2018 global survey confirms that people’s beliefs about science are deeply influenced by their culture, context, and background.

Paper (2018): Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate

Hoaxy: This online tracker scours social sharing for stories from low-credibility sources and independent fact-checking organizations.

Tracking recent local and social media narratives on Ebola in DRC.

Inter-Action's Disinformation Toolkit: "simple steps international advocacy organizations and humanitarian group can take to be better prepared for disinformation attacks"

Jump to the Social Media verification chapter of UNESCO's new Fake News Handbook

Paper (2018): Belief in conspiracy theories:  "originate from basic social motivations that characterize intergroup conflict, namely to uphold a strong ingroup identity and to protect against a threatening outgroup."

Get inspiration from some of the world's best public health social media campaigns.

Mike prepares to trade mi quang for stout in the land of saints and scholars, while still recovering from #wethenorth.

Sherine's been reliving throwbacks, watching Ramy, and reading Zadie Smith again.