Infodemy as a form of competition of problems in public arenas

Abstract

Urgency. The article is devoted to analysis of infodemia as special effect of communicative sphere of society, which accompanies the outbreak of coronavirus disease. Infodemia is interpreted as consequence of excessive production of information, as elaborating of extremely large amount of inaccurate and emotionally charged information. This situation makes it difficult to form adaptive behavioral strategies.

The present paper aims to: highlight mutual influence of technical, psychological and social factors. It is argued that combined effect of these factors ensured dominant status of this information in public arenas.

Results. Using theoretical analysis, it has shown hyperinflation of discourses in digital space is essential factor in destabilization of mental and psychological states of person. This caused integral changes in the order of sociality, since it weakened the power of the discourses of official institutions, impugned their right to claim the truth and reduced possibility of effectively resolving of situation. Lack of the trust in the professional competencies of relevant institutions (distrusting in actions of the healthcare system, distrusting in possibilities of political and economic stabilization in country, etc.) resulted in massive devaluation of objective or factual information (for example, about sources and means of disease spreading). On the other hand, under conditions of self-isolation, horizontal ties between members of society turned out to be a powerful channel for disseminating information (both reliable and unreliable). Specifics of functioning of digital communication space and high emotionally unstable background of society have significantly reduced possibilities for self-control and self-censorship of transmitted information. It has shown that end-to-end social process leading to emergence of infodemics is a “crisis of confidence”. It arises because incoherence of information originating from different sources destroys discursive border between the truth and the fake, and discrediting symbolic power of intellectuals to maintain the order of sociality leads to an increase in infantile protests in society.