Book
Our book Misinformation Matters: Online Content and Quality Analysis (Taylor & Francis)
Book Description:
What is ‘misinformation’? Why does it matter? How does it spread on the internet, especially on social media platforms? What can we do to counteract the worst of its effects? Can we counteract its effects now that it is ubiquitous? These are the questions we answer in this book. We are living in an information age (specifically an ‘algorithmic age’) which prioritises information quantity over quality. Social media has brought together online billions of people from across the world and the impact of diverse platforms, such as Facebook, WeChat, Reddit, LinkedIn, Signal, WhatsApp, Gab, Instagram, Telegram, Snapchat, has been transformational.
The internet was created, with the best of intentions, as an online space where written content could be created, consumed and diffused without any real intermediary. This empowering aspect of the web is still, mostly, a force for good. People, on the whole, are better informed and online discussion is more inclusive because barriers to participation are reduced. As activity online has grown, however, an expanding catalogue of research reveals a darker side to social media, and the internet generally. Namely, misinformation’s ability to negatively influence our behaviour both online and offline.
The solution we provide to this growing dilemma is informed by Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which examines the relationship between language and reality from a philosophical perspective, and complements Claude Shannon’s Information Quantity Theory, which addresses the quantification, storage, and communication of digital information from a mathematical perspective. The book ends by setting out a model designed by us: a ‘Wittgensteinian’ approach to information quality. It defines content published online by clarifying the propositions and claims made within it. Our model’s online information quality checklist allows users to effectively analyse the quality of trending online content. This approach to misinformation analysis and prevention has been designed to be both easy to use and pragmatic. It upholds freedom of speech online while using the ‘harm principle’ to categorise problematic content.
Our book can be purchased with a discount at our publisher's website (click here): Routledge
Newspaper articles
Freedom of Speech is not Freedom to Confuse Hate Speech with Ordinary Speech We Hate. Business Day, 16 January 2023, p. 9
Information Analysis Online: Opinion, Belief, Truth and Fact. Business Day, 12 May 2022, p. 10
Amplification or Friction? Misinformation Online is About Information Quality. Business Day, 29 July 2021, p.10
'Harm Principle 2.0': An Update Required for Online Free Speech Today. Business Day, 23 July 2021, p.11
Misinformation Online is a $78 Billion Annual Problem Affecting Global Economy. Business Day, 18 March 2021, p.11
Misinformed About the Information Age: The Existential Crisis of Online Social Media. Business Day, 25 February 2021, p.10
The Time for Society to Act and Prevent a Misinformation Apocalypse is Now. Business Day, 06 October 2020, p.9
Learning to Think Analytically is the Only Immunity During an Infodemic. Business Day, 18 August 2020, p.9
Research papers
Peer reviewed
Information Disorder Online is an Issue of Information Quality. Academia Letters, Article 2999 (2021). https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2999 (online version). PDF below:
The ‘Harm Principle’ and Information Disorder Online. Academia Letters, Article 3425 (2021). https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3425 (online version). PDF below:
Full length versions
Making the ‘Harm Principle’ Central to Approaches Against Information Disorder. SocArXiv, July 2021
Misinformation Analysis and Online Information Quality Theory (A Wittgensteinian Approach). SocArXiv, January 2021
This paper articulates our central thesis, our approach, for online misinformation analysis and our main contribution to the literature. It presents a novel conceptual framework for online misinformation analysis and introduces two new terms "off-information" and "non-information".
Shorter versions
Boolean Logic, Fregean Logic, Wittgensteinian Logic and the Processing of Natural Language. SocArXiv, September 2021
Online Misinformation Analysis through Wittgensteinian Lens. SocArXiv, August 2021
Some Approaches in Online Misinformation Analysis. SocArXiv, August 2021