ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic has introduced new challenges throughout the world and is endangering people’s prosperity. To these health, economic, political, and social challenges have been added those related to the management and dissemination of information, mainly concerning its exponential growth, veracity, and dissemination. Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an information epidemic or “infodemic”: too much information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during an acute public health event, which leads to confusion, risk-taking, and behaviors that can harm health, and lead to mistrust in health authorities and public health response. This paper explores the concept of mal/mis/disinformation and how the information managers or professionals are able to manage the phenomenon of infodemic in relation to Covid-19. Literature reviews were carried out to explore the current concepts, models, association, and gap within the published literature on mal/mis/disinformation (MMDI) and the role of information managers or professionals in this regard. The major findings of this study focus on defining mal/mis/disinformation/fake news, evaluating ongoing and emerging information literacy frameworks, and highlighting the existing initiatives and efforts made by library and information science (LIS) professionals, LIS associations, and libraries to contradict the diffusion of Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity (MMDI) and fake news. The findings also aims to educate the public on how to navigate through an era of mal/mis/dis-information. The study summarises effective strategies designed by those within the LIS profession while suggesting recommendations as to how information managers/information professionals can continue to improve their key position in the electronic age and contribute effectively to manage the phenomenon of infodemic.

KEYWORDS

Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, Infodemic Management, Covid-19 Epidemic, Information Literacy, LIS Professionals, Library Services

Amjid Khan 
Department of Library & Information Sciences
Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad
Pakistan

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