Social listening in infodemic management for public health emergencies: guidance on ethical considerations

Overview

This guidance document has been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to guide governments, organizations and individuals seeking advice on how to ethically engage in social listening as part of infodemic assessment and mitigation strategies, in concordance with the protection of and respect for human rights, in preparation for, during and after public health emergencies.

In the context of public health, social listening is the process of listening to and analysing conversations and narratives. It entails the capture and analysis of data from diverse sources to understand the conversations, feelings, attitudes, knowledge, beliefs and intentions of populations and communities with respect to health risks (e.g. disease outbreaks) and mitigating factors, as well as the scientific evidence and government policies surrounding them.

These data have a range of sources, including health systems, epidemiological data, sociobehavioural or economic studies, traditional media and data generated by users of digital and social media platforms. The most common application of social listening as part of infodemic management is to generate infodemic insights that summarize a community’s questions, concerns and areas of uncertainty or discord, which can help to inform appropriate, sensitive, proportionate and effective interventions.