Keselman, A., Smith, C.A. & Wilson, A.J. (Eds.) (2022). Combating Online Health Misinformation: A Professional’s Guide to Helping the Public. Rowman & Littlefield.

A white book cover with a blue box has cartoon pictures of hands holding phones. Orange text reads, 'Combating Online Health Misinformation.'

Danger of health misinformation online, long a concern of medical and public health professionals, has come to the forefront of societal concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of their motives, creators and sharers of misinformation promote non-evidence-based health advice and treatment recommendations, and often deny health methods, measures, and approaches that are supported by the best evidence of the time. Unfortunately, many infrastructural, social, and cognitive factors make individuals vulnerable to misinformation. This book aims to assist information and health professionals and educators with all phases of information provision and support, from understanding users’ information needs, to building relationships, to helping users verify and evaluate sources. The book can be used as a textbook in library and information science programs, as well as nursing, communication, journalism, psychology, and informatics programs.

Lavorgna, A. (2021). Information Pollution as Social Harm: Investigating the Digital Drift of Medical Misinformation in a Time of Crisis. Emerald Publishing.

A black book cover with digital, red rext reads, 'Information Pollution as Social Harm.'

The coronavirus pandemic struck the world in a very distinctive way: experience from past pandemics or from more recent outbreaks could give us only a limited understanding of how the situation was likely to unfold. In this context, and with cyberspace being increasingly used to support health-related decision making and to market health products, potentially harmful behaviours have been carried out by individuals propagating non-science-based health (mis)information and conspiratorial thinking. This includes, among other actions, boycotting the use of masks and physical distancing, proactively opposing the use of the COVID-19 candidate vaccines, and promoting the use of useless or even dangerous substances to prevent or resist the virus. By relying on a virtual ethnography approach carried out on Italian-speaking alternative lifestyle and counter-information online communities, this book shows how the nature of personal interactions online and the construction of both personal and group identities through the development of an 'us vs. them' narrative, are central to the creation and propagation of medical misinformation.
This book is essential reading for researchers in the social, health, and data sciences and also professionals interested in scientific communication.

McIntyre, L. (2022). How to Talk to a Science Denier. MIT Press.

A book cover with black and white, yin and yang style speech bubbles say, 'How to Talk to a Science Denier.'

“Climate change is a hoax—and so is coronavirus.” “Vaccines are bad for you.” These days, many of our fellow citizens reject scientific expertise and prefer ideology to facts. They are not merely uninformed—they are misinformed. They cite cherry-picked evidence, rely on fake experts, and believe conspiracy theories. How can we convince such people otherwise? How can we get them to change their minds and accept the facts when they don't believe in facts? In this book, Lee McIntyre shows that anyone can fight back against science deniers, and argues that it's important to do so. Science denial can kill. Drawing on his own experience—including a visit to a Flat Earth convention—as well as academic research, McIntyre outlines the common themes of science denialism, present in misinformation campaigns ranging from tobacco companies’ denial in the 1950s that smoking causes lung cancer to today's anti-vaxxers. He describes attempts to use his persuasive powers as a philosopher to convert Flat Earthers; surprising discussions with coal miners; and conversations with a scientist friend about genetically modified organisms in food. McIntyre offers tools and techniques for communicating the truth and values of science, emphasizing that the most important way to reach science deniers is to talk to them calmly and respectfully—to put ourselves out there, and meet them face to face.

Smith, G. (2023). Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science. Oxford University Press.

A gold mechanical gear on a black background as silver writing that reads, 'Distrust.'

This thought-provoking book argues that, ironically, science's credibility is being undermined by tools created by scientists themselves. Scientific disinformation and damaging conspiracy theories are rife because of the internet that science created, the scientific demand for empirical evidence and statistical significance leads to data torturing and confirmation bias, and data mining is fuelled by the technological advances in Big Data and the development of ever-increasingly powerful computers. Using a wide range of entertaining examples, this fascinating book examines the impacts of society's growing distrust of science, and ultimately provides constructive suggestions for restoring the credibility of the scientific community.

Nayyar, G. (2023). Dead Wrong: Diagnosing and Treating Healthcare's Misinformation Illness. Wiley.

A white book cover with a red p-line (like on an EKG) supplies the A in 'Dead Wrong.'

In Dead Wrong: Diagnosing and Treating Healthcare’s Misinformation Illness, a team of health misinformation experts delivers a first-hand account of the dangers posed by false narratives and snake oil in the face of deadly healthcare crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic. In the book, you’ll explore the challenges facing those who fight to restore truth to a place of primacy in the United States healthcare system, the strategies they use, and the lessons you can draw from their real-world stories. Through interviews with healthcare leaders on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic and an intuitive discussion of contemporary academic research, the authors highlight issues of critical importance in the quest to bring accurate information to the American public.

Offit, P.A. (2019). Bad Advice: Or Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren't Your Best Source of Health Information. Columbia University Press.

A yellow book cover with various pills making up a frowning face with black text reads, 'Bad Advice.'

Science doesn’t speak for itself. Neck-deep in work that can be messy and confounding, and naïve in the ways of public communication, scientists are often unable to package their insights into the neat narratives that the public requires. Enter the celebrities, the advocates, the lobbyists, and the funders behind them, who take advantage of scientists’ reluctance to provide easy answers, flooding the media with misleading or incorrect claims about health risks. Amid this onslaught of spurious information, Americans are more confused than ever about what’s good for them and what isn’t. In Bad Advice, Paul A. Offit shares hard-earned wisdom on the do’s and don’ts of battling misinformation. For the past twenty years, Offit has been on the front lines in the fight for sound science and public heath. Stepping into the media spotlight as few scientists have done—such as being one of the first to speak out against conspiracy theories linking vaccines to autism—he found himself in the crosshairs of powerful groups intent on promoting pseudoscience. Bad Advice discusses science and its adversaries: not just the manias stoked by slick charlatans and their miracle cures but also corrosive, dangerous ideologies such as Holocaust and climate-change denial. Written with wit and passion, Offit’s often humorous guide to taking on quack experts and self-appointed activists is a must-read for any American disturbed by the recent uptick in politicized attacks on science.

Ginossar, T., Shah, S.F.A. & Weiss, D. (2023). Vaccine Communication Online: Counteracting Misinformation, Rumors and Lies. Palgrave.

A red, textbook-like book cover has white text that reads, 'Vaccine Communication Online: Counteracting Misinformation, Rumors and Lies.' A picture below the title captures a white, hand-made sign with a drawing of a shot and writing that says, 'Resist Flu World Order.'

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.