Reporting COVID-19 via Crowdsourcing: the US vs. China

Crowdsourcing is vital in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the most recent and relevant literature on crowdsourcing COVID-19, this chapter maps out how crowdsourcing has been used and studied in the US and China, focusing on news information. The findings are three-fold: crowdsourcing is indispensable in combatting the infodemic during the pandemic; mobile technology and social media are essential in crowdsourcing initiatives; mobile applications are developed in crowdsourcing initiatives, and crowdsourcing is widely used in survey research to collect data. While studies in the US focus on mobile verification apps to fight against infodemic, in China, the “real name” authentication mechanism reduces the chance of users’ supplying fake news. Researchers have also developed datasets and crowdsourced lists in Chinese. Due to the different political parties and media systems, the White House and mainstream media have low trust ratings in the US, whereas Chinese people tend to believe in “official news”.