Baur, Monica
[UCL]
This chapter is about one science popularization practice in particular: debunking. Debunking or demystifying information means demonstrating how it is misleading or inaccurate. The Moon landing, vaccines, Covid-19, the pyramids’ construction … all are scientific topics that could bring about false information and conspiracy theories. In order to understand the particularity of debunking, specifically on YouTube, we analysed five videos posted by video communicators who popularize science on that platform. They react to a ‘documentary’ posted on YouTube, La révélation des pyramides, which has been identified as conspiracist. In this chapter, we present the characteristics of these video communicators and debunkers, as well as the ways they open up for the development of scientific literacy.


Bibliographic reference |
Baur, Monica. Fighting against disinformation and conspiracy: assessing the contribution of videos on YouTube. In: Martin W Bauer, Bernard Schiele, Science communication : taking a step back to move forward, CNRS Editions : Paris 2023, p. 346-354 |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/283875 |