The Jordanian Media Credibility Monitor Akeed recorded (362) rumors circulated by Jordanians over the past year. It was issued and spread among the audience, reaching them through local media and social media platforms.

The Observatory said in its annual report, which it announced today, Wednesday, that it has developed a quantitative and qualitative methodology to monitor rumors, as it is defined as “incorrect information related to a Jordanian public or Jordanian interests, which has reached more than five thousand people, via digital media.”

Through the daily monitoring process over the past 12 months, AKEED found that the number of rumors, which reached 362, at a rate of 30 per month, decreased by 188, compared to 550 rumors recorded during the year 2021. Thus, the average number of rumors decreased from 46 in 2021 to 30 in 2022.

The month of August recorded the highest number of rumors during 2022, with 43 rumors, or 12 percent of the total number of rumors, while the month of April recorded the least, with 15 rumors or 4 percent.

And the observatory indicated that health rumors recorded a decrease of 71 rumors compared to what they were in 2021, as the health sector recorded 98 rumors at that time, which decreased to 27 in 2022, which dropped health sector rumors from the second place in 2021 to the fifth (penultimate) in 2022.

He added that rumors of public affairs decreased by 76, dropping from the first to the second in 2022, while the rumors of the economic sector rose from the third to lead in all fields, with an increase of 15 rumors.

He explained that the economic rumors that came first last year recorded 109 rumors out of 362, at a rate of 30 percent, then rumors of public affairs came in second place with 93 rumors, at a rate of 26 percent, while security rumors came in third place, which recorded 81 rumors at a rate of 22 percent, followed by Rumors from the political sector recorded 36 rumors, at a rate of 10 percent, then health rumors, which recorded 27 rumors, at a rate of 8 percent, and finally social rumors, which recorded 16 rumors, at a rate of 4 percent.

He said that the monitoring process traced the source of the rumors spread through the media and public publishing platforms, especially social networks. When classifying rumors according to their source, it was found that the share of internal sources, whether social media platforms or news sites, amounted to 344 rumors out of the total rumors for the year. 2022, at a rate of 95 percent, while 16 rumors were recorded from external sources, at a rate of 4 percent, and two rumors whose source was not specified, at a rate of (1) percent.

Akeed stated that when classifying rumors according to the means of publication, it became clear through monitoring that 280 rumors, or 77 percent, came from social media, while traditional media was the source of 82 rumors, or 23 percent.

The (Akeed) Monitor saw that the basic rule in dealing with content produced by social media users is not to re-publish it unless it is verified from a reliable source, and that relying on social media users as a source of news without taking into account the accuracy of the content or not causes the publication of a lot of news. Incorrect and far from accurate news, thus promoting rumors and spreading misleading and wrong information.

He pointed out that rumors usually flourish in abnormal circumstances, such as times of crises, wars, natural disasters, etc., and this does not mean that “they do not spread” in normal circumstances, and rumors are promoted significantly in social, political, or cultural environments to the exclusion of others, Its spread depends on the level of its ambiguity, the size of the influence of its topic, and the extent to which the recipients receive correct and sound media education.

The Jordanian Media Credibility Monitor (AKEED) publishes on its website reports to verify misleading and erroneous information that is spreading in the media, with the aim of raising awareness of the seriousness of the spread of incorrect information and its negative impact on society.

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