Health Misinformation: Examining Its Presence and Impact across Communication Contexts

Christopher McKinley^*

• Montclair State University, Montclair, United States

This special issue "Health Misinformation: Examining Its Presence and Impact across Communication Contexts" explores the global prevalence and impact of health misinformation highlighting the challenges faced by health care entities and opportunities to address this dilemma. The ten articles selected present diverse findings across various cultural, social, and political contexts. Three of these articles examine user discernment of accurate health information. In Wei et als' investigation "Factors influencing user's health information discernment abilities in online health communities: based on SEM and fsQCA" presents a unique model to address how personal judgments linked to online health communities drive the ability to 'discern' accurate health information. The findings from this analysis offer critical theoretical and practical implications for health information seeking in this digital environment. Peng, Meng, and Ling's experimental research, "The Media Literacy Dilemma: Can ChatGPT Facilitate the Discernment of Online Health Misinformation?" compares ChatGPT to other media literacy tools in aiding individual efforts to identify true versus false health content (Peng et al.). The findings suggest that there are significant limitations to ChatGPT utility as a misinformation detection resource. Li, Chen, Zhao, Yang, and Wang's large-scale survey of Chinese citizens during the height of Covid-19, "Covid-19 Vaccine-Related Misinformation Identification among Chinese Residents during a Regional Outbreak" provides a unique perspective on the role of information source judgments and geographical differences that drive COVID-19 misinformation detection skills. Three of our other special issue selections explore concerns over user-generated health misinformation. Humprecht and Kessler's study "Unveiling misinformation on YouTube: examining the content of COVID-19 vaccination misinformation videos in Switzerland" highlights one case of the infodemic proliferating during COVID-19 (Islam et al., 2020). By identifying leading Swiss figures posting false vaccine information on YouTube, the authors provide a quantitative assessment of the prevalent misinformation strategies, including commercialization and emotionalization. Furthermore, many of the videos intersperse false information with scientific evidence, thereby increasing user engagement. Zhao, Yao, Sui, and Zhao investigation of short online videos providing lung cancer information to Chinese adults -"Current status of short video as a source of information on lung cancer: a cross-sectional content analysis study"analyzes the educational value of these non-traditional information sources. Results of this analysis raise questions on the validity of user-generated content, highlighting the importance of source expertise. Skarzauskiene, Maciuliene, Dirzyte, and Guleviciute's project, "Profiling antivaccination channels in Telegram: Early efforts in detecting misinformation" address the troubling aspects of vaccine-related misinformation on Telegram as well tools to identify malicious content. The findings reveal important insights into how misinformation actors frame health crises, manipulate online conversations (i.e., testimonial strategies), and emotionally-driven language.Bates et al. article "Navigating misinformation and political polarization of COVID-19: interviews with Milwaukee, Wisconsin county public health officials" provides an in-depth examination of the misinformation challenges faced by U.S. public health officials during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The insights shared by these public health professionals offers lessons on attempts to combat both media misinformation and political polarization when trying to implement preventative health measures.Pjesivac, Klein, Zhao, Lu, and Jin's study "Examining conspiracy theory spillover in health communication arena: Factors that impact COVID-19 conspiratorial beliefs and healthrelated behaviors" indicates that general conspiracy beliefs drive more specific acceptance of COVID-19 related conspiracies. Examining the ramifications of this relationship through a sequential process, the researchers show that embracing general conspiracy theories indirectly contributes to less COVID-19-specific avoidance behavior by driving acceptance of COVID-19 conspiracy theories.Finally, two systematic reviews are included in this special issue. Bhattacharya and Singh's research, Unravelling the Infodemic: A Systematic Review of Misinformation Dynamics During the COVID-19 Pandemic provide a comprehensive analysis of information gaps emerging during COVID-19. The research offers key analysis of technical, social and psychological factors facilitating the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Furthermore, the authors provide a critical assessment of the effectiveness/limits of government regulation and public education in minimizing this infodemic. Godwin Alfred, Catalan-Matamoros, and Elias's systematic review, Drivers of vaccine mis/disinformation in the media: From personal beliefs to cultural dimensions differentiate between demand and supply side dynamics in mediated false vaccine information. The project highlights the influence of cultural dimensions (individualistic vs. collectivistic societies) in determining the main drivers of vaccine misinformation.Overall, these ten articles reflect the scope of global health misinformation across health contexts and modalities. As information tools become increasingly sophisticated, personalized, and accessible, the insights from this special issue can provide guidance to public health initiatives aimed at better educating and empowering citizens to make responsible health decisions.