Organized Skepticism in the Age of Misinformation
Surviving the Kingdom of Gossip

By (author) Brett Bourbon,Renita Murimi

ISBN13: 9781032493473

Imprint: CRC Press

Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Published: 12/03/2025

Availability: Not yet available

Description
Drawing from philosophy, information theory, and network science, Organized Skepticism in the Age of Misinformation: Surviving the Kingdom of Gossip offers a novel conceptual framework that views information as a form of gossip. This book challenges the idea that truthfulness is a necessary, or even a relevant condition, of information. Instead, this book develops a conceptual framework in which information is understood as gossip, which fits within a more general account of information and knowledge as constrained but contingent social practices. Using this framework, this book provides a nuanced understanding of the “grammar” of gossip that permeates both online and real‑orld environments and sheds light on the often overused and confused terms of our time: information, misinformation and knowledge. This book offers a fundamental reconfiguration of the evolving virtual interdependence of humans and information technology. It is a key resource for students and scholars in areas relating to social media, information diffusion, human/computer interface, and computational social science.
◾ Introduction Part I A Crisis of Knowledge and Everyday Epistemology Chapter 1 ◾ Problems with the Concept of Knowledge Chapter 2 ◾ Knowledge Is Necessarily Contingent and Normative Chapter 3 ◾ The Practices of Redescription (Paradiastole) Part II Information and Misinformation Chapter 4 ◾ What Is Information? Chapter 5 ◾ Shannon’s Theory of Information Chapter 6 ◾ Data, Counting, and Writing Chapter 7 ◾ Is Information Subjective or Objective? Or Neither? Chapter 8 ◾ Is Misinformation a Kind of Information? (Or Must Information Be True?) Chapter 9 ◾ Truth Is Seldom the Motive : The Complexity of Human Motives Part III Gossip and Rumor Chapter 10 ◾ A Critique of Current Models of Information Diffusion Chapter 11 ◾ Gossip and Rumor Chapter 12 ◾ A Discursive Grammar of Traditional Gossip Part IV Online Interfaces Chapter 13 ◾ Online Information Diffusion as Gossip and Dreamscape Chapter 14 ◾ The Grammar of Online Self‑Gossip Chapter 15 ◾ The ‘Information Ecosystem’ and Gossiping AIs Part V Conclusion Chapter 16 ◾ The Dynamo and the Internet
  • Communication studies
  • Internet browsers
  • Professional & Vocational
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