COVID-19 and 5G conspiracy theories topic of first segment of Newsy series

COVID-19 and 5G conspiracy theories are the topic of the first installment in a weekly series for Newsy featuring the News Literacy Project. Darragh Worland, NLP’s vice president for creative services, discusses how conspiracy theories linking the COVID-19 pandemic and 5G wireless technology are circulating widely on social media despite having been debunked by scientists.

“Once a falsehood makes it out into the mainstream, even if you delete the post, the damage has been done,” Worland tells Newsy viewers in the April 17 segment.

The solution, she notes, is news literacy, specifically: “being able to recognize the story and to be able to stop yourself before you let your brain sort of go down these paths.”

Newsy is an online national news network owned by The E.W. Scripps Co., which joined NLP in presenting National News Literacy Week in January as part of our ongoing partnership.