Prelims
ISBN: 978-1-80071-522-6, eISBN: 978-1-80071-521-9
Publication date: 30 April 2021
Citation
Lavorgna, A. (2021), "Prelims", Information Pollution as Social Harm: Investigating the Digital Drift of Medical Misinformation in a Time of Crisis (Emerald Studies In Digital Crime, Technology and Social Harms), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. i-xiii. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-521-920211007
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited
Half Title Page
INFORMATION POLLUTION AS SOCIAL HARM
Series Page
EMERALD STUDIES IN DIGITAL CRIME, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL HARMS
Series Editors: James Martin, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Asher Flynn, School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia
Previous Volumes:
Cryptomarkets: A Research Companion; James Martin, Jack Cunliffe, Rasmus Munksgaard
The Emerald International Handbook of Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse; Jane Bailey, Asher Flynn, Nicola Henry
Over the past two decades, digital technologies have come to permeate ever more aspects of contemporary life. This trend looks to continue and has profound implications for the social sciences, particularly criminology, with technology-facilitated offences now arguably constituting the most dynamic and rapidly growing area of contemporary crime. Despite this development, the discipline of criminology has been slow to embrace the critical study of technology-facilitated offences and social harms, with most research conducted in this area still informed by a relatively narrow range of cybersecurity and applied criminological perspectives.
Emerald Studies in Digital Crime, Technology and Social Harms is part of a new movement within criminology and related disciplines to broaden this narrow focus and engage critically with new trends in technology-facilitated offending and victimisation. The book series uses a combination of critical criminological, socio-legal, and sociological perspectives to consider a wide range of technology-facilitated offences and harmful social practices, ranging from digital surveillance, cyberbullying and image-based sexual abuse through to global darknet drug trading.
Editorial Board
Asia Pacific
Professor Mark Andrejevic, Monash University, Australia
Professor Rod Broadhurst, Australian National University, Australia
Dr Akane Kanai, Monash University, Australia
Dr Monique Mann, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Dr Brady Robards, Monash University, Australia
Dr Campbell Wilson, Monash University, Australia
Europe
Professor Ross Coomber, University of Liverpool, UK
Dr Rutger Leukfeldt, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Netherlands
Dr Adrian Scott, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
Professor Majid Yar, Lancaster University, UK
North America
Associate Professor Michael Adorjan, University of Calgary, Canada
Professor Walter DeKeseredy, West Virginia University, USA
Professor Benoît Dupont, University of Montreal, Canada
Associate Professor David Maimon, Georgia State University, USA
Assistant Professor James Popham, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Title Page
INFORMATION POLLUTION AS SOCIAL HARM
Investigating the Digital Drift of Medical Misinformation in a Time of Crisis
ANITA LAVORGNA
University of Southampton, UK
Copyright Page
Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK
First edition 2021
© 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited
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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the text, illustrations or advertisements. The opinions expressed in these chapters are not necessarily those of the Author or the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-80071-522-6 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-80071-521-9 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-80071-523-3 (Epub)
Dedication Page
To G. and L., for being the best company I could wish for in this strange year.
Endorsement Page
“Our new device of doubt delighted the great public, which snatched the telescope from our hands and turned it on its tormentors”
—Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo
Contents
| List of Figures | xi | |
| Acknowledgments | xiii | |
| 1. | Social Harms in Pandemic Times | 1 |
| 1.1. Introduction | 1 | |
| 1.2. The Pollution of Medical Information | 3 | |
| 1.3. Why Looking at Social Harms? | 8 | |
| 2. | Methodological and Theoretical Approaches | 15 |
| 2.1. Introduction | 15 | |
| 2.2. Background of this Book and Notes on Research Methods | 17 | |
| 2.3. Drifting into Medical Misinformation: An Integrated Approach | 22 | |
| 3. | Web of Ties: The Actors Behind Medical Misinformation | 27 |
| 3.1. Introduction | 27 | |
| 3.2. Receivers | 28 | |
| 3.3. Supporters | 30 | |
| 3.4. Providers | 34 | |
| 3.5. Conspiratorial Ideation and Epistemic Mistrust | 38 | |
| 4. | Building Identities and Networks Through Converging Frames | 43 |
| 4.1. Introduction | 43 | |
| 4.2. Narratives of the Self | 44 | |
| 4.3. Agency and Empowerment | 53 | |
| 5. | Drifting Off the Polluted Pathway | 57 |
| 5.1. Contexts of Crossdisciplinarity | 57 | |
| 5.2. Juggling Divergent Needs | 59 | |
| 5.3. Recognizing the Maze | 61 | |
| References | 69 | |
| Index | 89 | |
List of Figures
| Fig. 3.1 | Drifting into Misinformation | 28 |
| Fig. 4.1 | Meme on Inverted “Covidiots” | 47 |
| Fig. 4.2 | Bad Scientists | 48 |
| Fig. 4.3 | They are Infecting Us | 52 |
Acknowledgments
A special thanks to AIRIcerca (the Association of Italian Researchers in the world), AIRInforma (its science popularization journal), and Il Post among the Italian online daily newspapers for helping me stay the course when trying to navigate a sea of polluted information.