Critical thinking, disillusion, and dissent

Information literacy in a refused knowledge information landscape

Abstract

This study explores information literacy within a community organized around contested beliefs, challenging the assumption that information literacy reduces susceptibility to misinformation. It assumes a sociocultural perspective on information literacy, conceptualising information literacy practices as shaped by and taking place within intersubjectively created information landscapes imbued with values, beliefs, and practices that determine what is considered appropriate engagement with information. Employing reflexive thematic analysis to qualitatively analyse social media content (text and images) published by a Swedish network of nurses active in the COVID-19 dissent milieu, the study finds that critical engagement with information is central for shaping the network’s information landscape. The types of interrogative questions often found in guides or frameworks for critical thinking and source criticism are shown to be part of how information is approached and evaluated within the landscape. Furthermore, within the network’s information landscape, critical thinking is expressed as a moral good and is encouraged both as an approach to truth and as a morally good act. Following this, the study suggests that in this information landscape, belief in contested knowledge may be an effect of information literacy practices rather than a lack of them. The study contributes to the discussion on the role of information literacy as a solution for misinformation belief, showing how IL practices can function to sustain, rather than diminish, belief in contested knowledge.