A Bibliometric Analysis of Disinformation through Social Media

Abstract

The study’s purpose is to systematically review the scholarly literature about disinformation on social media, a space with enhanced concerns about nurturing propaganda and conspiracies. The systematic review methodology was applied to analyze 264 peer-reviewed articles published from 2010 to 2020, extracted from the Web of Science core collection database. Descriptive and bibliometric analysis techniques were used to document the findings. The analysis revealed an increase in the trend of publishing disinformation on social media and its impact on users’ cognitive responses from 2017 onwards. The USA appears to be the most influential node with its more significant role in advancing research on disinformation. The content analysis identified five psychosocial and political factors: influencing individual users’ perceptions, providing easy access to radicalism using personality profiles, social media use to influence political opinions, lack of critical social media literacies, and hoax flourish disinformation. Our research shows a knowledge gap in how disinformation directly shapes communal psychosocial narratives. We highlight the need for future research to explore and examine the antecedents, consequences, and impact of disinformation on social media and how it affects citizens’ cognition, critical thinking, and well-being.