Impacts of covid-19 pandemic in the Brazilian research scenario on misinformation: Analysis of publications from information science journals

Abstract

The objective of identifying the scenario of the spread of misinformation in the second decade of the present century permeates the analysis of the work of the scientific community supported by technological, educational, and social demands. This issue has become even more relevant in a context of COIVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we investigate the most relevant research themes connected with misinformation addressed in Brazilian research in the field of information science, as well as data on the number of publications per analyzed journal, per year, main keywords, in addition to crossing different data collected in order to better understand this scenario, and the impact of the Pandemic on research about disinformation. This study used descriptive research in compliance with the proposed objective and bibliographic research as a procedural methodology, therefore, aimed at surveying articles in Brazilian journals on Information Science and areas of knowledge such as Library Science, Communication, and Journalism. We collected paper published in 28 Brazilian Journals of Information Science, with results between 2015 and 2021, giving a total of 114 papers. We have identified a number of core topics that are most frequent, allowing for an organization into thematic categories and subcategories. We understand that this phenomenon is not new and characteristic only of contemporary society, but must be investigated in light of recent facts that have driven the publicity of research on the subject. Allied to the misinformation scenario in the last decade, we registered the occurrence of events related to the infodemic and the pandemic responsible for changing the direction of politics, economy, health, and education worldwide.

How Does Digital Media Search for COVID-19 Influence Vaccine Hesitancy? Exploring the Trade-off between Google Trends, Infodemics, Conspiracy Beliefs and Religious Fatalism

“…Washington Post columnist Rothkopf first used infodemic in 2003 [ 41 ]. There are several definitions for it, ranging from “a few facts combined with fear, speculation, and rumor exaggerated and communicated fast globally by new information technology” to “a rapid and far-reaching spread of both factual and erroneous information about something, such as a disease” [ 42 ].…”

Evolusi Penelitian Pendidikan: Tinjauan Jumlah Publikasi dan Perkembangan Topik dalam Dua Dekade Terakhir (Kata Kunci: “The Evolution of Educational Research”)

“…Pandemi COVID-19 juga berdampak pada skenario penelitian di Brasil tentang misinformasi. Analisis terhadap publikasi dari jurnal Ilmu Informasi menunjukkan bahwa pandemi telah menyebabkan peningkatan penelitian tentang misinformasi (Assis & Gerlin, 2022). Hal ini menyoroti pentingnya memahami penyebaran informasi yang salah dalam konteks krisis global dan peran Ilmu Informasi dalam mengatasi masalah ini.…”