The scale of disinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic has been called infodemic. It involved disseminating various messages and theories that had a significant negative impact on limiting the spread of the disease but also exacerbated existing social antagonisms and emboldened and radicalised fringe groups. Infodemic, to a large extent manifested in social media, also fostered the formalisation of denialist circles, who transferred their sometimes very aggressive sentiments from the web to the real world. Negation and contestation of the pandemic were partly born spontaneously but were also created as part of postmodern hybrid activities. Consequently, narratives of infodemic led to difficulties in functioning health services, but above all, to an increase in morbidity and mortality related to COVID-19. The consequences of the infodemic would also include various economic effects, such as increased medical expenses for unvaccinated people or turbulence in the labour market.

Students’ attitudes to the infodemic phenomenon in the perspective of improving media literacy in academic education

The article presents the results of a study that aimed to analyse students’ attitudes towards infodemic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The author adopted the interpretation of infodemic as a process of spreading an excess of untrue information, which complicates the evaluation and selection of reliable content. The research problem was the question of students’ attitudes towards false information related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The research sample consisted of 37 students of pedagogy. The research was conducted in a qualitative research paradigm. The results indicated that the surveyed students had a positive and stable organisation of their own knowledge, beliefs, feelings, and such forms of behaviour and expressive reactions as are necessary when confronted with infodemic. The respondents declared that they search for content in various sources and make a critical comparison and identification of false content. Despite this, they do not have a sufficiently in-depth knowledge of how to debunk false information. They feel the need for a great deal of cognitive effort to verify content. Therefore, the author makes recommendations for the formation of critical media literacy – as a way of building social resilience to disinformation and other disorders of the information age.