Respondents who get news about the coronavirus via Facebook are less likely to get vaccinated than the average American and than non-Facebook users. Sixty-one percent of those Facebook users said they had been vaccinated, vs. 68 percent of the eligible U.S. population and 71 percent of non-Facebook users. The relationship was stronger for those who said that they had received coronavirus news or information only from Facebook and not from any of the other sources mentioned. Sixteen percent of all respondents fall into this category, and only 47 percent of them report being vaccinated, with 25 percent saying they will not get vaccinated.
I don't use Facebook, so I had no idea there was a news section on the site. I logged into my account just to see what type of news Facebook provides its users.
What's confusing to me is where on Facebook are these individuals gaining their information regarding covid-19?
- Are they getting information from users they follow who are sharing articles?
- Are they getting information from the News section of the site? If it is information taken from the News section of the site, those articles are from different news outlets. Similar to google, Fox News, CNN, BBC etc. are all on Facebook.
- Are they getting information from ads?
Facebook is a social network dedicated to sharing and algorithmic postings. It seems that the article should be specific to how the individuals are relying on Facebook for news.
There's no real specification to how these individuals are getting their covid-19 information via Facebook.
I think my main critique to this entire article is why is anyone relying on Facebook for any type of news?