Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal An excessive amount of information concerning a problem such that the solution is made more difficult

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From information + epidemic

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Examples

  • DOW: I think the media has to have a measured response and by an infodemic I do think that it has the potential to happen.

    CNN Transcript May 3, 2009 2009

  • DOW: I think the media has to have a measured response and by an infodemic I do think that it has the potential to happen.

    CNN Transcript May 2, 2009 2009

  • The first case Rothkopf dubbed an infodemic was the 2002 SARS epidemic.

    TODAY'S ZAMAN :: News ŞULE KULU 2010

  • In Turkey's most striking infodemic, Turks were gripped by fear of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's possible use of nuclear weapons during the 1991 Gulf War.

    TODAY'S ZAMAN :: News ŞULE KULU 2010

  • Meanwhile, covidiots are spurning lockdown restrictions in ways likely to make the pandemic worse, amid an infodemic of dodgy news and half-informed coronasplaining.

    The rules of coronaspeak The Economist 2020

  • On the other hand, there might be an increasing medicalisation of political rhetoric, as with the revival of the scary term “infodemic”, used by the WHO in the spring to describe a deluge of misinformation about Covid-19.

    From 'alert' to 'zoom': Steven Poole's lexicon of lockdown Steven Poole 2020

  • WHO explains that infodemics are an excessive amount of information about a problem, which makes it difficult to identify a solution.

    UN tackles ‘infodemic’ of misinformation and cybercrime in COVID-19 crisis | United Nations United Nations 2023

Comments

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  • On 2 February, the WHO declared there was a "massive infodemic" accompanying the outbreak and response, citing an over-abundance of reported information, accurate and false, about the virus that "makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it."

    March 8, 2020

  • Coronavirus is more of an infodemic than an epidemic.

    March 8, 2020