Disinformation, Science Communication and Trust: Food Rumours in Thailand

Abstract False information on the internet is one of the important global agendas. It becomes much more intensive since the rise of social media uses. The information leads people to have false beliefs and actions. There are many types of false information on the Internet. However, the food rumour is an influential issue attracting attention from social media users, especially in Thailand. It is normally composed of attractive headings and false scientific claims in order to convince the readers. One of the effective solutions to this problem is delivering the debunking of the information to the public, preventing them from misunderstanding these rumours. Since the rumours have contained scientific claims, debunking rumours, as a result, is a part of science communication. This study has three parts; rumour content, experts and people. This is paralleled to three empirical studies; disinformation in rumours, science communication from debunkers and the way people trust in the rumours and the debunkers. The thesis begins addressing the questions of features of food rumours on Facebook in Thailand during 2013-2016 because this period represents a huge increase in the use of social media. The feature of rumours will be completed by analysing the content. The following part explores the response from relevant stakeholders by in-depth interviews of government, social influencers, NGOs, media agencies and private sectors. The outcome of the interview will give us an idea of the current status of science communication. The last component goes back to people, as a layperson, assuming that they do not know about science. The study will investigate trust in the way they trust in rumours and in debunkers by an experimental survey. The experiment will give the results as to the source that people have more trust in; the government or the social influencer. The overall outcome hopes for people to detect rumours, help experts develop better science communication and encourage people to develop their science knowledge skill