At the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s second annual School of Communication and Information (SCI) Open House, keynote speaker Dr. Kasisomayajula Viswanath, a leading expert in science and public health communication, addressed concerns on the impact of misinformation in science and how the community can begin to unpack these issues in his presentation.
Misinformation in science is trickier than what we traditionally think because our knowledge of science is evolving. Dr. Viswanath defined misinformation as “information that is not in correspondence with the facts as we understand at that point in time.”
Often, the public can be confused about how quickly this information evolves. Using the example of the COVID pandemic, Dr. Viswanath commented on how some people found scientific information to be unreliable when really the information was evolving at a rapid pace.
He said that the solution lies in bridging the information between scientists and the public.
One way Dr. Viswanath suggested this was by increasing the supply from the producers of information to dilute the misinformation. If you simply have more reliable information, it makes the reliable content much more visible.
Another was to control the distribution of information through secure platforms and through credible resources. If social media prevents misinformed statements from getting out, and the public relies on vetted scientific websites for information, there is a much less likely chance of people being able to receive misinformation.
Dr. Viswanath was aware that even in his field, there are many resources locked behind paywalls that prevent people from accessing good information. He has advocated for people to “take a second look at this paywall business, because that’s only going to create problems.”