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Abstract
The Internet plays a large role in disseminating anti-vaccination information. This
paper builds upon previous research by analyzing the arguments proffered on anti-vaccination
websites, determining the extent of misinformation present, and examining discourses
used to support vaccine objections. Arguments around the themes of safety and effectiveness,
alternative medicine, civil liberties, conspiracy theories, and morality were found
on the majority of websites analyzed; misinformation was also prevalent. The most
commonly proposed method of combating this misinformation is through better education,
although this has proven ineffective. Education does not consider the discourses supporting
vaccine rejection, such as those involving alternative explanatory models of health,
interpretations of parental responsibility, and distrust of expertise. Anti-vaccination
protestors make postmodern arguments that reject biomedical and scientific "facts"
in favour of their own interpretations. Pro-vaccination advocates who focus on correcting
misinformation reduce the controversy to merely an "educational" problem; rather,
these postmodern discourses must be acknowledged in order to begin a dialogue.
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