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Indictment or Information Can Lie: Post-Truth in Science

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Integrity of Scientific Research

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Abstract

Misinformation and false news are the provenance of post-truth, a recent phenomenon whereby debate is framed by appeals to emotion with repeated assertion of half-truths and outright lies. While dubbed a modern concept, misuse of information and fake news have their roots grounded in history. Indeed, scholars argue that even though certain features of post-truth were foreshadowed in earlier times, a combination of different factors has currently created a new set of circumstances which justify its designation as a post-truth era. This chapter will therefore take a closer look at the origins of post-truth and how it infiltrated science and medicine and negatively influenced debates about climate change, vaccine uptake and the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter argues the importance of utilising Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach in analysing discourse which accompanies conspiracy theories and fake news. Only after a thorough examination of discourse can effective strategic planning to combat misinformation take place.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Mariella Scerri

  2. Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta

    Victor Grech

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  1. Mariella Scerri
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  2. Victor Grech
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hospital das Clinicas, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Joel Faintuch

  2. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Salomão Faintuch

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Scerri, M., Grech, V. (2022). Indictment or Information Can Lie: Post-Truth in Science. In: Faintuch, J., Faintuch, S. (eds) Integrity of Scientific Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99680-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99680-2_3

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