TY - JOUR
T1 - Media matters
T2 - a mixed-method look into the research on misinformation and communication over 30 years
AU - Ophir, Yotam
AU - Walter, Dror
AU - Lokmanoglu, Ayse
AU - Walter, Nathan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Communication Association. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact [email protected].
PY - 2025/12
Y1 - 2025/12
N2 - We use a large-scale mixed-method analysis to examine changes in misinformation research over three decades, with a particular attention to the role of media research. We examine a corpus of more than 7,000 academic studies, published between 1993 and 2022, analyzing changes in volume, topics, and methods used. Employing computational text and network analyses, we show how the meteoric rise in misinformation research in the 2010s was driven by a paradigm shift brought about by technological innovations and changes in the media and political landscape. We discuss the growing role communication scholars played in misinformation research, and offer recommendations for areas of strength in which communication research could further extend our understanding of the prevalence, nature, and effects of misinformation moving forward.
AB - We use a large-scale mixed-method analysis to examine changes in misinformation research over three decades, with a particular attention to the role of media research. We examine a corpus of more than 7,000 academic studies, published between 1993 and 2022, analyzing changes in volume, topics, and methods used. Employing computational text and network analyses, we show how the meteoric rise in misinformation research in the 2010s was driven by a paradigm shift brought about by technological innovations and changes in the media and political landscape. We discuss the growing role communication scholars played in misinformation research, and offer recommendations for areas of strength in which communication research could further extend our understanding of the prevalence, nature, and effects of misinformation moving forward.
KW - citation network
KW - computational methods
KW - misinformation
KW - mixed methods
KW - paradigm shift
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105046297836
U2 - 10.1093/anncom/wlaf016
DO - 10.1093/anncom/wlaf016
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105046297836
SN - 2380-8985
VL - 49
SP - 286
EP - 303
JO - Annals of the International Communication Association
JF - Annals of the International Communication Association
IS - 4
ER -