An offshoot of the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) is the JMIR Infodemiology "Focusing on determinants and distribution of health information and misinformation on the internet, and its effect on public and individual health."
An example of a recent article is :
Garrett, C., Qiao, S. & Li, X. (2024). The Role of Social Media in Knowledge, Perceptions, and Self-Reported Adherence Toward COVID-19 Prevention Guidelines: Cross-Sectional Study.
JMIR Infodemiology, 4, article e44395. https://doi.org/10.2196/44395
JMIR Infodemiology also has a call out (deadline 30 April 2024|) for a special issue on Exploring the Intersection Between Health Information, Disinformation, and Generative AI Technologies
The Journal of Medical Internet Research also still deals with information behaviour in a health context e.g.
Jia, C. & Li, P. (2024). Generation Z’s Health Information Avoidance Behavior: Insights From Focus Group Discussions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 26, article e54107 https://doi.org/10.2196/54107. "This study looks
at the phenomenon of health information avoidance among Generation Z,
who form a representative cohort of active web users in this era. Their
findings support several key components of the planned risk information
avoidance model and has interesting implications for understanding young
users’ information avoidance behaviors in both academia and practice." They identified social, cognitive and emotional factors for information avoidance.
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry tree in the gardens, April 2024
A new open access book is
Purnat, T., Nguyen, T. & Briand, S. (Eds.) (2023). Managing Infodemics in the 21st Century: Addressing New Public Health Challenges in the Information Ecosystem. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-031-27791-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27789-4
The chapters are
- Infodemic Management in the Twenty-First Century
- Key Concepts and Definitions in Infodemic Management
- People’s Experience of Information Overload and Its Impact on Infodemic Harms
- The Information Environment and Its Influence on Misinformation Effects
- Fighting the Fallacies: The ‘Infodemic’ and the European Commission
- Smart Health! Expanding the Need for New Literacies
- To Debunk or Not to Debunk? Correcting (Mis)Information
- Prebunking Against Misinformation in the Modern Digital Age
- Addressing Mis- and Disinformation on Social Media
- Partnering with Communities for Effective Management of Health Emergencies: Four Case Studies
A Statement from the ‘civil society’ track of the World Health Organization's 3rd Global Infodemic Management Conference - Stopping the Infodemic from Within - mentions information literacy in summarising the problems and possible solutions. The biggest message in the statement is the importance of involving communities in combatting infodemics. They propose three challenges and three solutions.
Solution 3 says that "Literacy is not simply an issue of being able to read and write; comprehensive literacy entails critical thinking and analysis, including an ability to discern fact from fiction. Advancing literacy requires us to understand key barriers to meaningful access to information and services, including healthcare. Once these barriers are understood, investments must be made in literacy capacity building and information infrastructure. Information literacy must be developed with and informed by the inputs, beliefs, attitudes, experiences, perceptions, social norms, and capacities of individuals and communities. Information and communication systems should be developed with communities and a comprehensive understanding of information actors and the existing ecosystem(s) in which they operate. ... Investments should be made globally and locally in media and information literacy education, ensuring it is part of core education curriculum."
Photo by Sheila Webber: another wreath of South London, December 2020
The Forum on Information and Democracy (an international organisation with high level connections) has had a working group on Infodemics, which produced a report in November 2020. It focuses on regulatory solutions and measures that could be taken by platforms, with recommendations to governments and online service providers. The start of the report outlines the origins and workings of the Forum. The steering committee of the working group is international, as were the 60 experts consulted for the report. I don't think anyone from an Information School or a library agency was included, distrubingly it seems like no international forum or agency appears to think that anyone from information science or librarianship has anything to contribute on the topic of infodemics. The report can be downloaded here: https://informationdemocracy.org/working-groups/concrete-solutions-against-the-infodemic/
Photo by Sheila Webber: early winter leaves, December 2020
Enjoy the selection of articles, games, news stories, videos and websites about disinformation and infodemics, curated by students in my Information Literacy class in the Information School, University of Sheffield, UK. They created this padlet, which is a treasure trove of advice and information, as their contribution to Global Media and Information Literacy week. Go to https://padlet.com/s_webber/globalmilweek
