Despite the core proposition of the antivax campaign having no basis in scientific fact and being a complex issue that requires expert knowledge to be considered seriously , Dr . Wakefield was able to gain momentum for the campaign having remade himself in Donald Trump ’ s America , travelling the country to promote views experts say have had deadly consequences and seemingly finding an ally in the president .
Agnotology , or the study of culturally induced ignorance , the strategic use of ignorance and a disregard for established facts , has been a topic of interest in science , medicine and linguistics for over 20 years . Numerous scholars have discussed agnotology in a PR context in a study of vaccination uptake in Slovenia , at a time that has seen otherwise well-informed parents throughout developed countries set themselves against medical science and campaign - with little if any specialist medical or scientific knowledge - against the vaccination of their children against communicable diseases . The result has been the reappearance of some previously eradicated diseases such as measles in several developed countries , with the United Kingdom losing its measles-free status from the WHO in August 2019 .
The continued prominence of the anti-vax movement is an example of a cultural trend of promoting ignorance in a strategic way as a virtue that empowers “ ordinary people .” This trend arguably gathered momentum in 2016 in both the US Presidential election and the UK ’ s referendum on EU membership with Trump ’ s celebration of his ignorance and the explicit disdain for experts by UK politicians in the Vote Leave campaign . In the case of vaccination of minors , instead of interested parents cultivating knowledge on this complex matter , there is what verges on delight at ignorance among some of the campaigners , who position themselves - sometimes with a degree of grandiosity - as fighters against the mainstream .
In addition to the Italian populist politician Matteo Silvani , who considers vaccines to be useless , the UK political commentator , Katie Hopkins , is another example of this grandiose but fact-less messaging against the mainstream that gives power and entitlement to the audience but demands no knowledge of or thinking on the subject from them , just an emotional response . The emotional appeal of the anti-vax movement to parents is that their children deserve better , in a way that gives status and a sense of privilege to the audience . That sense of privileged discovery by the audience and the sense that they are getting inside information was embodied in the tagline that accompanied Wakefield ’ s documentary - “ the film they don ’ t want you to see .”
While persuasion is preferable to coercion , the uncontrollable and unpredictable nature of this misinformation contagion has led to calls for censorship of social media materials and posts on vaccination , with Pinterest having already decided to block searches on vaccine topics . The antivaxxers example , which dates back 20 years , is an enduring example of the contagious nature of misinformation . The campaign tactics were to spread untruthful messages about vaccination that sounded viable , and the issue gained momentum in society long before talk of digital echo chambers and post-truth information wars .
The seriousness of its impact on child health in the form of increased occurrences of preventable diseases makes it perhaps
the saddest example of misinformation in practice , while also offering the challenge of generating a template of solutions for dealing with other instances of post-truth misinformation tactics : The tenacity of the anti-vaxx delusion , despite the considerable efforts of governments , journalists and health-care professionals , shows how hard it is to get the genie of fear and mistrust back into the bottle .
The increased scale of deception and a disregard for the truth in some modern public communication is an indicator of a more aggressive type of PR , which is less concerned with persuasion and contributing information in order to build consensus in the public sphere and more focused on winning at all costs .
Irene Mbonge is the Group Head , Corporate Communication & Public Affairs at CPF Group . You can commune with her on this or related issues via mail at : Mbonge . Irene @ gmail . com .