False memories to fake news: The evolution of the term "misinformation" in academic literature

TL;DR

This paper traces the evolution of the term 'misinformation' in academic literature from 2011 to 2023, highlighting its roots in earlier moral panics and discussing its implications for current research paradigms.

Contribution

It uncovers the historical lineage of misinformation research, linking it to the Satanic panic of the 1980s, and discusses how this influences contemporary understanding and approaches.

Findings

Misinformation research is historically connected to moral panic phenomena.

Post-2016 paradigm shifts are rooted in earlier social panic narratives.

Theoretical implications of this lineage affect current misinformation studies.

Abstract

Since 2016, the term "misinformation" has become associated with a scientific paradigm that studies, at its core, people making, reading, and sharing false statements, usually on social media, and often warning of the harm to society resulting from the sum of many such events. By tracking the term through the academic literature, with special focus on the years 2011--2023, we connect the post-2016 paradigm with a strand of research dating to the Satanic panic of the 1980s. We argue that post-2016 misinformation research owes more to this intellectual lineage than is generally acknowledged, and we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this connection. We conclude by drawing parallels between the Satanic panic and 2026, and, similarly, between misinformation research then and now.