Vaccine Communication Online: Counteracting Misinformation, Rumors and Lies

Communication about vaccination has become a public battleground. The global adoption of social media has increased the visibility and influence of groups that were previously considered fringe. With the goal of understanding vaccination-related misinformation's online spread and ways of effectively countering it, this book explores its reception, resistance, and reproduction by a range of stakeholders around the globe. Chapters cover a rich array of topics, including vaccine misinformation's history, its use as political propaganda, and its manipulation by both pro-and anti-vaccine groups. They apply a wide range of research methods, including historical literature and scoping reviews; advanced computational analysis, including machine learning; and reviews that incorporate the authors' personal, professional, and practice-based experiences. Chapter authors include leading US and international scholars as well as practitioners of Communication, Computer Science, Health and Science Education, Political Communication, Public Health, Sociology, and other fields, making this book the most comprehensive and diverse collection of studies on vaccine misinformation--online and offline--currently available.
Tamar Ginossar is a Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism and the BA/MD Program, and the Director of the Institute for Social Research, at the University of New Mexico.
Dr. Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Auburn University and Chair of the Health Communication Working Group of the American Public Health Association.

David Weiss is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism and the Director of Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies at the University of New Mexico.