The Infodemic: Disinformation, Geopolitics and the Covid-19 Pandemic

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What caused the Covid-19 pandemic Were the mitigation measures imposed by many governments - such as lockdowns and mask-wearing mandates - based on scientific evidence, or rather aimed at curtailing civil liberties and disrupting economic activities, under the secret maneuvering of a global cabal of politicians and financiers And were Covid-19 vaccines effective in curbing the spread of the disease, or were they just a profitable scheme by big pharmaceutical companies These questions and speculations, some legitimate, some dubious, have been swirling around the globe through social media, alternative information outlets, instant messaging apps, and mainstream media since the beginning of the pandemic, feeding the infodemic - an overwhelming surge of information, misinformation, rumours and conspiracy theories which continue to linger in public and private discourse. With an original take on concepts and theories drawn from post-truth and disinformation studies, the book analyses the infodemic through a series of global case studies. Framing the infodemic as a complex, multi-layered phenomenon with vast geopolitical implications, Gabriele Cosentino reveals the global competition for control in twenty-first century geopolitics between Western liberal democracies and non-Western autocracies, and above all between the United States and China.

Reviews

The book offers a sweeping inquiry into many relevant informational short-circuits and omissions that contributed to the Covid-19 pandemic. * Cristian Vaccari, Loughborough University, UK *
Cosentino achieves something incredibly impressive with The Infodemic, succinctly and coherently distilling crucial elements of a complex information ecosystem that roiled the world for over two years. * Marc Owen Jones, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar *

Author Bio

Gabriele Cosentino is Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at The American University in Cairo, Egypt.