Infodemic Management

Catalog description

How did the vaccine, a globally used well-baby ritual become a symbol of fear or political affiliation? Some concerns can be attributed to the information environment. This one-credit course will examine the infodemic, or deluge of COVID-related material, some true, some false — all of it combined to make the information landscape too much to manage. We’ll explore the impact of rumors, behavioral economics principles, and social factors (gender, geography, literacy, and IT access) on vaccine acceptance as a first step to understanding and managing infodemics, one of the most challenging communications crisis of our time.