Infocomics vs Infodemics: How Comics Utilise Health, Data and Media Literacies

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic citizens created their own artistic representations of public health messages. Tackling everything from the significance of R numbers, to being on guard for misinformation, these public health comics were shared across social media to thousands of followers. In this chapter we present findings from our UKRI/AHRC project ‘Comics in the time of COVID-19’ that analysed a sample of over 15,000 web-comics distributed on Instagram between March 2020 and March 2021. At their best, these comics amplified official public health messages, increased data comprehension, and led to more informed approaches to consuming and sharing digital media.