Misinformation in communication studies: a review and bibliometric analysis

Abstract

The dissemination of misinformation is a concern for political parties, news consumers and scholars of communication, and the purpose of this paper is to explore the current state, development, and important issues of misinformation research in the field of communication over the past decade. This study analysed 768 SSCI articles from the year 2014-2023 through the Web of Science database using bibliometrics. The study found that the number of published papers peaked in 2022 with 191 SSCI papers, and is considered the highest number recorded. Michael Hameleers, a scholar from the University of Amsterdam, U.S., are the largest contributor in research literature on misinformation in the field of communication at the macro, meso, and micro levels, respectively; meanwhile, "Health Communication" was the largest contributing journal. Three national level cooperation networks were seen through the cooperation network analysis, which were the United States of America, European and Asian cooperation networks; and from the institutional perspective, four basic cooperation networks were formed; whilst from the author perspective, the largest cooperation network had 22 researchers. These findings indicated that there is well-established cooperation network of authors research about misinformation in communication field. Through the citation and co-citation analysis, it was concluded that the most influential researcher in the field of communication is Emily K. Vraga. Through the cluster analysis of communication area, the misinformation studies was mainly found in the research of sharing information, governance, health, and politics. This study provides a macro framework for future researchers to examine pertinent issues of misinformation in the field of communication.