http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2022-10.html#misinformation-age ( )

More academic than I would have liked. ( )

The Misinformation Age is a very readable philosophical, historical, and mathematical analysis of the spread of misinformation and, of course, its mirror image, information. The authors employed the Bala-Goyal model, a Bayesian based model which examines the way individuals learn about something by both observing and listening to their compatriots, to examine scientists and their networks of interaction.

This may sound like an excessively dry read – it isn’t. The mathematics is reduced to text and diagrams of communication networks. The diagrams illustrate the ways the network changes as the individual’s knowledge (true and false), and interactions with other members of the network changes. They also show what happens when the network is impacted by forces such as propagandists, changes in individual authority, etc.

The authors use examples from history, both general and scientific, to illustrate these various scenarios of network change in practice. The examples are far ranging and include such things as the Hearst newspaper push for war with Spain over the sinking of the battleship Maine, the ostracizing of Semmelweis for suggesting “gentlemen have dirty hands”, the industrial obfuscation concerning CFC’s impact on the ozone layer, the Tobacco Institute’s campaign against the connection between smoking and lung cancer, and much more.

The book text is 186 pages. There are 26 pages of chapter notes, a 35-page bibliography, and an extensive index. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking a better understanding of the whys and wherefores of all forms of communications that are part of today’s world and the roles they play in everyday decisions at all levels of society. ( )