Tackling misinformation through online information literacy: Structural and contextual considerations

Abstract

Misinformation has been created and spread for centuries, but the Internet facilitates easy, rapid creation and dissemination of misleading or false information in ways that we are still understanding and adjusting to. Digital misinformation reaches into many realms, from entertainment to health to politics. Without adequate defenses in place, misinformation can—and likely does— affect consequential decisions like whether to be vaccinated or who to vote for. Given the scale of these threats, a wide range of responses are necessary, including platform reforms, policy changes, and educational efforts. We are broadly focused on educational efforts, or efforts to slow both the supply of and the demand for misinformation by supporting people to recognize, evaluate, and refrain from sharing misinformation. Efforts in this area vary widely in their scope and approach. For example, some projects attempt to inoculate users against common misinfor-mation tactics like using emotional language and discrediting opponents (e.g. Roozenbeek et al., 2022). Others embed short messages in social media platforms to remind users to verify sources and claims (e.g. Panizza et al., 2022). Yet another approach focuses on labeling or debunking misinformation as it surfaces on platforms, either by attaching fact checks to articles with questionable claims (e.g. Clayton et al., 2020; Pennycook et al., 2020) or by circulating new posts that directly address common claims made by misinformation (e.g. about COVID-19; Vraga & Bode, 2021). All of these efforts have shown promise in tackling misinformation and reaching wide audiences. However, these are mostly quick, lightweight interventions that may struggle to fundamentally shift people’s approaches to evaluating digital information. In this special issue, we focus on efforts to cultivate online information literacy, or the knowledge, skills,