Drowning in the Infodemic

One of the fundamental issues affecting modern communication is the rapid spread of misinformation throughout our communication system. The various social media bots, hostile foreign governments, trolls, fake news outlets, and conspiracy theorists have become the primary "disinformation agents" (Tucker et al., 2018) that have fed falsehoods to highly partisan news organizations, traditional media outlets, and even national politicians. This firehose of virulent content sprays and...
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One of the fundamental issues affecting modern communication is the rapid spread of misinformation throughout our communication system. The various social media bots, hostile foreign governments, trolls, fake news outlets, and conspiracy theorists have become the primary "disinformation agents" (Tucker et al., 2018) that have fed falsehoods to highly partisan news organizations, traditional media outlets, and even national politicians. This firehose of virulent content sprays and amplifies via the social media services connected to 69% of American citizens via smartphones, tablets, and communication technologies (Hitlin, 2018).The current state of engagement online has found additional stress because of the COVID-19 pandemic. More people are transitioning from face-to-face social interactions to one controlled by computers and the infrastructure that supports those technologies. This shift in social interactions means exposure to misinformation that will impact people's health, political beliefs, and other aspects of everyday life.Drowning in the Infodemic will look at various examples of health misinformation, toxic social practices, and other postings designed to break apart the central core of civil life during a time of a significant health crisis. Chapters will examine these forms of interactions through the lens of Social Network theory, Engaged Actor theory, and other online social psychological perspectives to examine the overall impact to fight this plague that affects the world.