Infodemic

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Infodemic is a portmanteau of "information" and "epidemic" that typically refers to a rapid and far-reaching spread of both accurate and inaccurate information about something, such as a disease. As facts, rumors, and fears mix and disperse, it becomes difficult to learn essential information about an issue.

History

Infodemic was used in 2003 in connection with SARS^[1] and has seen renewed usage during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] The term is generally ascribed to journalist and political scientist David Rothkopf who coined it to describe a situation where "a few facts, mixed with fear, speculation and rumor, amplified and relayed swiftly worldwide by modern information technologies" affect economies, politics and security.^[3] Relatedly, health researcher Gunther Eysenbach established the field of "infodemiology" to describe the study of "the determinants and distribution of health information and misinformation" at around the same time^[4] and later used the term to refer to attempts at digital disease detection.^[5]

The United Nations and the World Health Organization began using the term "infodemic" during the COVID-19 pandemic as early as 31 March 2020.^[6] The related term "disinfodemic" (referring to COVID-19 disinformation campaigns) has been used by UNESCO.^[7]

A Royal Society and British Academy joint report published in October 2020 said of infodemics that: "COVID-19 vaccine deployment faces an infodemic with misinformation often filling the knowledge void, characterised by: (1) distrust of science and selective use of expert authority, (2) distrust in pharmaceutical companies and government, (3) straightforward explanations, (4) use of emotion; and, (5) echo chambers," and to combat the ill and "inoculate the public" endorsed the Singaporean POFMA legislation, which criminalises misinformation.^[8][9] The Aspen Institute even started their misinformation project before the pandemic.^[10]

A blue-ribbon working group on infodemics, from the Forum on Information and Democracy, produced a report in November 2020, highlighting 250 recommendations to protect democracies, human rights, and health.^[11]

Research on Infodemic during Covid-19

As COVID-19 swept across the globe, information about how to stay safe and how to identify symptoms became vital. However, especially in the first phases of the pandemic, the amount of false, not validated and partially true information on the media was huge. A U.S. based survey research revealed that during March and April 2020 higher news consumption about Covid-19, especially through social media, was associated with lower levels of knowledge and more fake news beliefs.^[12] However, preliminary research published in fall 2021 suggested that visual information (e.g., infographics) about science and scientists, designed to address trust, might be able to mitigate belief in misinformation about COVID-19.^[13]

Criticism

Despite its widespread use by the WHO, scientists, journalists, and others the term has not been without critics. Financial Times journalist Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan has argued that casting the spread of misinformation and disinformation in terms of disease risks oversimplifying the problem and that "unlike the status of being healthy or infected by an actual disease, what constitutes accurate information is also subject to change." Venkataramakrishnan also pointed out that the focus of the infodemic has often been on "conspiracy theorists and snake-oil salesmen", largely ignoring the at times problematic actions and confusing messaging of governments and public health bodies throughout the pandemic.^[14]

Similar to Venkataramakrishnan, communication scholars Felix Simon and Chico Camargo at Oxford University have taken issue with the term and concept, arguing that the "infodemic" metaphor can be misleading, as it conflates multiple forms of social behaviour, oversimplifies a complex situation and helps constitute a phenomenon for which concrete evidence remains patchy." Pointing out that the infodemic as a concept is “journalistically powerful, intuitively satisfying, and in strong resonance with personal experiences and intuition", Simon and Camargo argue that empirical evidence for many of the claims surrounding the term is lacking. Instead of a genuine phenomenon they see the infodemic as "a territorial claim for those who want to apply their skills, a signal to others that they are working in this area, or a framing device to tie one’s work to larger debates".^[15]

See also

• Information overload

References