'Globalist war against humanity shifts into high gear': Online anti-vaccination websites and 'anti-public' discourse. (April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Davis, Mark
• Is Part Of: Public understanding of science. Volume 28:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 357
• Page End: 371
• Publication Date: 2019-04
• Subjects: health and media -- online media -- representations of science -- science experts -- scientific literacy -- vaccination; Science news -- Periodicals; Science -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 303.483
• DOI: 10.1177/0963662518817187
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-6625

Abstract

Online media has provided unprecedented opportunities for anti-vaccination groups to spread their message. An extensive scholarly literature has consequently emerged to analyse such discourse and develop strategies for countering it. In this article, I take a different approach. My contention is that it is no longer appropriate to approach anti-vaccination discourse as a stand-alone formation. Such sites, I argue, building on work by McKenzie Wark and Bart Cammaerts, are increasingly part of a wider proliferation of 'anti-public' discourse that contests fundamental democratic conventions, rules of argumentation and so on. The article uses a mixed methods approach based on a systematic content survey supplemented by the presentation of qualitative examples from 56 anti-vaccination websites. By locating anti-vaccination discourse in these broader contexts, I argue, it is possible to understand it as related to a more general transformation in public deliberation.