Misinformation poses a serious threat to both individual and societal health and well-being. There is increased popular and scholarly attention on the spread of fake news and misinformation, however the majority of this research is focused on the political outcomes of such information and how to correct this misinformation. This project argues for a different approach. One in which the use of fan studies shifts the focus from problems about ‘which news is real’ to ‘which news we choose to believe’.

The study examined how fannish behaviours explicitly and implicitly help drive and sustain the health and wellness misinformation within the TikTok ' health and wellbeing communities. Drawing on this example, it aimed to examine how an affective investment and quest for belonging impact the salience of misinformation. Therefore, the implications of the study suggest that trying to rectify problems with misinformation by simply ‘educating’ the public on the correct information will not be sufficient, as this does not address the underlying motivations of engaging with this discourse.

As an interpretative framework, fandom positions the traction and spreadability of misinformation and fake news as anchored in people’s own self-perceptions. Therefore, this project examined how, much like fans of popular culture texts, those who believe and peddle misinformation are drawn to do so by a longing for belonging to a community and an intense affective relationship with the collective.

The benefit of this project academically is that it aimed to understand how virality on social media impacts the spread of misinformation by social media influencers. The youth led team supervised by Renee Barnes conducted an online survey-based experiment which investigated how no virality, low virality and high virality impacted the credibility and trust of a social media influencer sharing misinformation relating to health and well-being. The results of 300 participants suggest that misinformation is deemed the most trustworthy and credible when high virality is present. The project therefore has enormous benefits through offering a thorough understanding of the salience and spread of misinformation can inform work to rectify its spread.

One youth research team member was part of this project.