Instagram from the perspective of misinformation: hashtags and sharing of information in the field of nutrition

Abstract

Research on information sharing on Instagram and the tagging process for hashtag attribution by users, observing the reliability of information and the content of hashtags. The aim is to analyze whether the Instagram social network can be an appropriate source of information for its users, considering the relationship between hashtags and the posts that are shared and accessed on the social network, from the perspective of misinformation. Methodological procedures include bibliographic research within the scope of Information Science; and empirical research with an exploratory approach that analyzes a sample of posts retrieved through hashtags in Nutrition. Based on the set of principles and guidelines developed by the Journal of the American Medical Association, Health On the Net Foundation - HONcode - and Charnock e Shepperd - DISCERN - to help ensure the quality and credibility of health and medical information on the internet, criteria were developed that integrate an instrument that was applied in the examination of the sample, in order to analyze and identify reliable or unreliable information in Nutrition posts on Instagram through the representativeness of hashtags, as they affect the quality of retrieval. The results indicated that Instagram is an accessible platform for disseminating information, however, it is a source of unreliable information since out of the 200 posts analyzed, only 57 showed good reliability and representativeness. Additionally, it was concluded that improvement of the network's tool that filters misinformation is necessary, due to the easy retrieval of unreliable information.

Keywords:
Instagram; misinformation; hashtags; information source; Nutrition