Overview

About the Project

Search for Common Ground (Search) in partnership with the European Union will implement a rapid-response “Love in the Time of Corona” campaign that will support an effective, conflict-sensitive response to the COVID-19 pandemic in a way that prevents further deterioration of social cohesion in fragile contexts in Africa, namely in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria.

This action has a two-fold purpose: on the one hand, it aims to render the response to the pandemic in the targeted countries more effective by ensuring citizen acceptance of the response through access to reliable information on the other, it will mitigate the negative impact of the crisis on social cohesion and prevent it from exacerbating existing conflict dynamics Covid19 prevention.

Theory of Change

if trusted communication channels can deliver credible information, counter rumor, and humanize others; if connections, networks, and relationships can be maintained and enhanced across dividing lines; and if governments and other responders are equipped to respond in a conflict sensitive manner,

Then the COVID-19 crisis will be addressed more effectively and its negative effects on social cohesion and ongoing conflict prevention efforts reduced,

Because all relevant stakeholders will be collaborating towards a common goal in a truly inclusive manner.

Objective 1: Information Management

Under this objective, Search will work closely with the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Health to craft content and access key information channels and platforms. In addition we will work with our network of radio partners across Nigeria to ensure national reach.

A1.1.1 COVID Rumor Management and Information Mapping: Search will map information channels to understand where and how citizens are accessing information related to COVID, as well as what trusted communication providers and channels are not currently being utilized to raise awareness on COVID. In addition, we will track rumors and misinformation that are being disseminated and across which channels. This process will help Search tailor our media products and campaign strategy to strengthen trusted communication channels and providers, mitigate rumors and misinformation, and tailor content based on the context. Throughout the duration of the project, we will regularly track rumors and misinformation related to COVID so that our media content remains responsive for rumor mitigation.

Outputs: 1 nationwide mapping of information channels and rumor assessment; 10 monthly rumor tracking initiatives (10 months of tracking)

PURPOSE OF RUMOUR TRACKING

Search for Common Ground tracking rumors and misinformation that are being disseminated across various channels, to help tailor our media products and campaign strategy to strengthen trusted communication channels and providers, mitigate rumors and misinformation, and tailor content based on the context.

DEFINITION OF RUMORS

Rumors are unverified pieces of information transmitted within communities that can take the form of misinformation (spread in good faith) or disinformation (spread intentionally to deceive)

WHY IS REAL-TIME RUMOR MANAGEMENT ESSENTIAL?

The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated the spread of misinformation at a time when facts are crucial and lifesaving. While some rumors are harmless, others create a significant public health risk and community conflict by stigmatizing protective practices or reducing trust in authorities, health providers and . Setting up a rumor management system enables working on COVID-19 ICSP project to craft an evidence-based and effective response by better understanding the misinformation and rumors circulating in Nigeria.

There are two sub-groups of rumors, which are defined by the intent of the people spreading them: Misinformation is incorrect information spread by people without the intent to deceive, for example through a misunderstanding.

Disinformation is incorrect information spread by people in order to deceive or manipulate others. An example of this is ‘fake news’, which is disinformation disguised as news, often spread for political or economic gain.

WHY RUMORS CANNOT BE IGNORED

Rumors can threaten lives and create suffering and distort peace in the society, it also offer opportunities as a form of feedback on several interventions, informing course corrections and adaptations to ensure a more effective and efficient response. Rumours can help us better understand and build stronger relationships with people in the affected communities resulting in a more localized, more people-centred response. Rumours encourage better transparency and accountability practices. They can serve as an early warning of violence or risky behaviour so early action can be taken.

KEY COMPONENTS OF REAL-TIME RUMOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The three components of the system are:

1. Collecting community feedback into a rumor tracking database

2. Exploring beliefs through short message service (SMS) or interactive voice response (IVR) surveys and also creating google alerts

3. Developing, pretesting, and monitoring the communication response.

METHODOLOGY

Collecting community feedback through a rumor tracking system

1.Conduct social media listening using the Talk walker software to understand what people are saying about COVID-19 based on their public posts from all locations within Nigeria.

It’s a two-step process:

Step A: Monitor social media channels for mentions, messages, hashtag, videos and messages using keywords related to COVID 19.

Step B: Analyze the information using the rumour categorization tool, analyze based on number of mentions and engagements, emotions behind a post and produce monthly bulletin using infographics to present the data collected.

STEP BY STEP APPROACH TO ONLINE REAL TIME MONITORING [USING TALKWALKER/AWARIO SOFTWARE]

Real-time monitoring of social media platforms to listen, identify rumors and record same on the rumor Log)

· By inputting Keywords related to COVID into the software platform

· By scanning the media space for rumors and Misinformation

· By listening to the negative sentiments and trending hashtags creating traffic on the internet space related to covid19

· The social listening will cover demographics related to[ Gender, location, occupation, influencers, age, interest and religion]

· Scan all blogs and news channels for rumors

· Real-Time dashboards will be created and assessable to Project Team

2. Use a survey or to identify a sample of the population [data collection, conduct surveys and get feedbacks from the communities on rumours collected.

STEP BY STEP ONLINE SURVEY

· Create a free link online for the public to click on and report rumors.

· Record every message in a database using a structured questionnaire.

3. Rumor log will be provided to radio stations airing call-in shows to documents rumors, train and support radio hosts to recognize and further educate their audience to report rumors.

4. Setting up a toll free line for community members across Nigeria to call in and report rumours.

DETERMINING THE RISK OF A RUMOUR

Depending on their potential consequences, not all rumours will require a response. The risk that a rumour poses should be the key factor in the decision to respond. To assess the potential consequences of a rumor following questions should be asked:

· Could the rumour harm the community or cause risky behavior?

· Could the rumour put staff or other service providers at risk?

· Could the rumour discourage or prevent people from accessing services?

· Could the rumour present a reputational risk to agencies?

VERIFYING THE RUMOUR

Once the level of risk is understood, the appropriate response will be planned. Firstly, the rumour must be verified, which means uncovering the possible causes of the rumour. Understanding what triggered the rumour will help to determine how to address the root causes and prevent it from being repeated. E.g. it may be something an agency has done or hasn’t explained properly that needs to be addressed to stop the rumour recurring.

To identify the causes of the rumour, the following questions will be used in the process of verification.

• Was there an unusual event of conflict in the community?

• Was there a group of people or individuals who fell sick?

• Was there a distribution of palliative items?

• Are there people in the community who might benefit from the rumour?

Answering these questions will help broaden the understanding of the context and the possible issues and concerns that people might have. A verification process may allow one to know which elements of the rumour were true or untrue.

Relevant verification outcome will be added in the rumour tracker table

RESPONDING TO THE RUMOUR

Once a rumour has been identified, analysed and verified, the community must be engaged with verified information. Engaging the communities enables agencies to deliver messages and provides another opportunity to listen and continue the dialogue. The following suggestions are worth to consider when planning counter-messages:

STEP BY STEP DATA ANALYSIS

a. Questions and disinformation synthesized by the Conflict Analyst, who examine the coded raw data, the visuals with digital summaries of the codes, and extract the themes and do a fact check with relevant stakeholders [NCDC& WHO].

b. Conflict Analyst summarizes the results using a structured template that includes descriptive visuals (number of rumors submitted broken down by geography, topic, channel, or other key features) as well as illustrative verbatim rumours.

c. A summary of the themes will be communicated by producing a monthly rumor monitoring bulletin to the coordination body for inclusion in the message guides and other community engagement activities.

DEVELOPING, PRETESTING, AND MONITORING THE COMMUNICATION RESPONSE

Develop the communication response Based on the findings from the initial community feedback and SMS survey results, share with the Media team to decide which communication channels and messages are the most appropriate.