The birth of infodemiology. The case of WHO: towards a new global health information organization?

Résumé 0

‪The Covid-19 pandemic has shown, like no health crisis before, the importance of matters related to information, mediation and data. So far, one could have believed that public health issues were only a matter of media coverage, yet the flurry of Fake News, conspiracy theories and medical controversies has demonstrated that the field of public health was inseparable from media communication. Influence, virality and contagion have symbolically linked up the epidemiological field with the mediological realm. Popularized by the WHO during the Covid-19 crisis, the notion of infodemic is part of a broader model and project: infodemiology. This is not just a matter of labelling dysfunctional or pathological informational objects, but rather of producing the frameworks of a new “discipline” - one could even speak of a new science. Formulated as such, the project could make you smile. Our impression is that this project, though it stems from good intentions, reproduces a mechanical conception of information and communication processes. Therefore this article first aims to show what are the processes and the limits of this project. Second, it seeks to put this project into perspective with an older history of the theories of “virality” that are at stake. At the end of the day,from an epistemological point of view, we feel this project designates our own discipline and deserves careful analysis.‪