What's Wrong with Misinformation?

Abstract

Strangely, few recent studies of misinformation have given attention to the concept of misinformation itself. An examination of several studies of Covid misinformation shows them to be implicitly based on having unquestioned possession of the truth, so there is no attention to struggles over who decides what counts as misinformation and no mention of the possibility that views labelled misinformation might offer reasonable alternative perspectives. This has limitations, especially if understood in the context of research on public scientific controversies: ethical and political disagreements are obscured, and social analysts become de facto supporters of scientific orthodoxy.