Anti-Vaccination in The Post-Truth Era


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Authors

Keywords:

Anti-vaccination, vaccine, Post-Truth era, social media, sociology

Abstract

According to the debates in the field of social sciences, the concepts of post-truth and social media are among the concepts that best reflect our day. Whether or not the content shared in social media groups reflect the truth becomes ambiguous due to the interactivity peculiar to these platforms, it may seem acceptable to some individuals who encounter these contents for different reasons, and this can multiply the rate of dissemination of this information. There are also posts on the benefits and harms of vaccines in these channels; however, the content related to its harms can attract more attention due to its extraordinary and remarkable information quality and the unquestionability/ limited questionability nature of this medium can open up false information more easily. In this research, the contents of four anti-vaccination groups on Facebook and Instagram were analyzed qualitatively, and the arguments put forward by anti-vaccines while developing an opposition to vaccines were analyzed descriptively within the framework of the phenomenological approach. In this context, it has been determined that these groups put forward the argument that vaccines have ingredients that lead to diseases and deaths, and conspiracy theories about vaccines, and they have turned into virtual communities. 

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Published

2021-02-27

How to Cite

SOFUOĞLU KILIÇ , N. . (2021). Anti-Vaccination in The Post-Truth Era . Türk İslâm Medeniyeti Akademik Araştırmalar Dergisi, 16(31), 99–118. Retrieved from https://timad.com.tr/index.php/timad/article/view/41