The DOI matches its Crossref record; 80 of the 83 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Anti-vaccine activists, Web 2.0, and the postmodern paradigm - An overview of tactics and tropes used online by the anti-vaccination movement
Abstract
Websites opposing vaccination are prevalent on the Internet. Web 2.0, defined by interaction and user-generated content, has become ubiquitous. Furthermore, a new postmodern paradigm of healthcare has emerged, where power has shifted from doctors to patients, the legitimacy of science is questioned, and expertise is redefined. Together this has created an environment where anti-vaccine activists are able to effectively spread their messages. Evidence shows that individuals turn to the Internet for vaccination advice, and suggests such sources can impact vaccination decisions - therefore it is likely that anti-vaccine websites can influence whether people vaccinate themselves or their children. This overview examines the types of rhetoric individuals may encounter online in order to better understand why the anti-vaccination movement can be convincing, despite lacking scientific support for their claims. Tactics and tropes commonly used to argue against vaccination are described. This includes actions such as skewing science, shifting hypotheses, censoring dissent, and attacking critics; also discussed are frequently made claims such as not being "anti-vaccine" but "pro-safe vaccines", that vaccines are toxic or unnatural, and more. Recognizing disingenuous claims made by the anti-vaccination movement is essential in order to critically evaluate the information and misinformation encountered online.
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“Parents who go to the Internet will find that some of the top “hits” for vaccine-related search terms are websites that propagate anti-vaccine conspiracy theories [14], [15].”
From The Effects of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions (2014) · cites this paper as [14]
In the citing paper
“Such attempts at intervention may therefore fail on people who are sympathetic to a variety of conspiracy claims [14], [15].”
From The Effects of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions (2014) · cites this paper as [14]
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“Low confidence may be due to the influence of false knowledge, where opponents of vaccination present facts and draw wrong conclusions in a one-sided or distorted manner, expecting phenomena that are impossible in science (39).”
BackgroundPrinciples of Forming a Strategy for Reducing the Psychological Tension of Social Network Users
Khakimova, A. K., Золотарев, О., & Zatsman, I. (2022) · The Open Public Health Journal · doi:10.2174/18749445-v15-e2208185 · Cited by 2
Kaplan, S. J., von Isenburg, M., & Waldrop, L. (2022) · JMIR Formative Research · doi:10.2196/40291 · Cited by 2
“The coding schema was informed by common antivaccination themes identified by Kata [20], safety concerns identified by [28], and the authors.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialVaccine hesitancy in Western and Eastern Europe: The significance of contextual influences
Trifunović, V. (2022) · Glasnik Etnografskog instituta · doi:10.2298/gei2203153t · Cited by 2
Huguet-Feixa, A., Artigues-Barberà, E., Sol, J., Godoy, P., Ortega, M., & MC-MUVA (2023) · JMIR Formative Research · doi:10.2196/41799 · Cited by 2
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“Moreover, conversations on social media platforms may be amplifying concerns about vaccines and vaccine hesitancy (Capurro et al., 2018; Kata, 2012; Sharevski et al., 2020).”
BackgroundVranić, S. M., Cvijanović, O., Jurković-Mujkić, A., Kustura, A., Ademović, E., Šegalo, S., Vinčević-Smajlović, S., Jogunčić, A., Radetić, A. T. J., Dražić, I., et al. (2023) · Population Medicine · doi:10.18332/popmed/168706 · Cited by 2
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“This aligns with the tactic of skewing the science (identified by Kata [97]), which focuses on criticizing scientific studies while simultaneously calling for more studies, particularly focusing on the need for randomized controlled trials that compare vaccinated children and unvaccinated children.”
BackgroundSmith, T. C. (2024) · AIDS and Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10461-024-04528-3 · Cited by 2
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The Online Vaccine Debate: Study of a Visual Analytics System
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“Examples of such topics include vaccination [5,6], nutrition [3,14], recreational drug use [15], and complementary/alternate medicine use [16].”
BackgroundInfluentialVaccination Education Subordinated to Campaigning
Martin, B. G. (2020) · On Education Journal for Research and Debate · doi:10.17899/on_ed.2020.8.4 · Cited by 2
“Quite a few proponents have analysed websites with information critical of vaccination, under the assumption that this information is misleading parents (e.g., Kata, 2012).”
BackgroundIncreasing vaccination intention in pandemic times: a social marketing perspective
Wassler, P., Chiappa, G. D., Nguyen, T. H. H., Fedeli, G., & Williams, N. L. (2022) · Italian Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1007/s43039-022-00049-w · Cited by 2
“These beliefs are often 1 3 propagated by vaccine skeptics, conspiracy theorists, and anti-vaxxer activists (Kata, 2012).”
BackgroundLampert, Y. (2021) · Journal of Didactics of Philosophy · doi:10.46586/jdph.2021.9593 · Cited by 2
Misinformation on the Internet?: A Study of Vaccine Safety Beliefs
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The Prevalence and Effects of Scientific Agreement and Disagreement in Media
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Experimental? I Don’t Think It Means What You Think It MeansPreprint
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Why do we argue about science? Exploring the psychological antecedents of rejection of science
Kerr, J. R. (2020) · Open Access Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka (Figshare) · doi:10.26686/wgtn.17142374 · Cited by 2
Coconut Oil Reflects: A Comparative Commodity Ethnography In Two Sites
Rigler, N. (2022) · Open Access Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka (Figshare) · doi:10.26686/wgtn.21101881 · Cited by 2
Mudambi, M., Clark, J., Rhue, L. A., & Viswanathan, S. (2023) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4653460 · Cited by 2
A Comprehensive and Critical Literature Review on Framing Theory in the Digital Media AgePreprint
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kata, A.
- Affiliations
- McMaster University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Kata, Anna
- ORCID
- Kata, Anna
- Venue
- Vaccine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-05
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 25
- Pages
- 3778-3789
- ISSN
- 0264-410X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2062321610
- Cited by
- 1,094
- References
- 83
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 65 · 2024: 77 · 2023: 111 · 2022: 124 · 2021: 151 · 2020: 158 · 2019: 81 · 2018: 73 · 2017: 58 · 2016: 60 · 2015: 47 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 56.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Vaccine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Health › Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Keywords
- anti-vaccine movement, anti-vaccine activism, Web 2.0, misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, user-generated content, science communication, online health information
- MeSH terms
- Communication, Decision Making, Humans, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Vaccination, Vaccines, Health Communication, Social Media
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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