Organized Skepticism in the Age of Misinformation

This book offers a novel conceptual framework that views information as a form of gossip. It provides a nuanced understanding of the “grammar” of gossip that permeates both online and real-world environments, and sheds light on the often overused and confused terms of our time: information, misinformation, and knowledge. 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.