Disinformation and critical information literacy

Abstract

Scientific community has been striving to comprehend the multifaceted phenomenon of disinformation, including strategies to resist and counteract it. One approach is fostering critical information literacy. However, it's uncertain if this correlation holds true in scientific communication. This study employs bibliometric analysis to assess the presence of "disinformation" and "critical information literacy" in the field of Information Science (IS). The theoretical framework encompasses the development of critical information literacy and the theme of disinformation. Using scholarly literature, a search was conducted in the Brapci - Information Science Database - revealing limited presence of these themes in literacy studies within the field. The analysis scrutinizes 11,155 references from 2,514 works. This investigation suggests that "disinformation" and "critical information literacy" are gradually intertwining and explored in IS scholarly literature, indicating potential for critical information literacy to counter disinformation and improve human relations with information.