3. Top-down misinformation about COVID-19 has punched above its weight
Misinformation from politicians, celebrities, and other prominent public figures made up just 20% of the claims in our sample of COVID-19 claims but accounted for 69% of total social media engagement. While the majority of misinformation on social media came from ordinary people, most of these posts seemed to generate far less engagement. |
4. Most of the publishers we surveyed expected a substantial fall in revenues in 2020
36% of the news organisations we surveyed said they expected severe drops of 30% and more in their revenue. Only 14% said they expected stable or even growing revenues. If these figures are indicative of the situation in the global news industry, newspapers alone may be looking at a decline of 30 billion dollars in 2020. |