During the COVID-19 pandemic, listening to and working with communities to understand and respond to concerns has been paramount. With the proliferation of social media, the infodemic accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic has seen misinformation and disinformation spread at an alarming rate, and professionals and civil society have been faced with an overabundance of information.
In response, a new report ‘Finding the Signal through the Noise: A landscape and framework to enhance the effective use of digital social listening for immunisation demand generation’ provides an overview of the current digital approaches to social listening for immunization.
The work was lead by Health Enabled with technical guidance and support from a Global Partnership consisting of WHO, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and Vaccination Demand Hub. A landscape analysis was completed through a combination of desk research, key informant interviews, a review of relevant frameworks, evidence and learning from country experiences.
WHO has been working closely with partners since March 2020 to develop tools and systems to help countries effectively manage the infodemic. The WHO public health research agenda called for more clarity and guidance on social listening, and recommendations from the recent 4th Virtual WHO Infodemic Management Conference: Advances in Social Listening for Public Health further highlighted the need for increased accountability, coordination and guidance. In addition, recommendations from the Ad Hoc WHO Technical consultation included the need to triangulate data, work from an evidence base, and improve global coordination.
This report responds to the recommendations identified throughout the pandemic by proposing a framework with practical guidance for those seeking to utilize social listening data to strengthen vaccine demand. For those working to manage the infodemic, filtering the overabundance of information and public response can be challenging. How do teams decide what is important to respond to, what rumour is gaining traction and what is best left alone? For health and communications teams with limited capacity, where is effort best placed for maximum public health impact?
The task of translating public conversations into effective action for public health is complex and this new framework provides clear considerations. The process map identifies stages of data identification, sourcing, collection, analysis and impact. Specific recommendations are included for different levels of involvement in social listening – implementers, policy makers, researchers and funders. It will be a useful, practical tool in the infodemic manager’s toolbox.