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Morality, Epistemology, and Activism: How Anti-vaccination Advocates on Twitter Construct a Rhetoric of Alternative Immunity

Though it is a
centuries old practice, anti-vaccination has become a growing trend since the
rise of the internet. Anti-vaccination rhetoric complicates neoliberal beliefs
about public health and systems of medical knowledge-making. This study follows
100 Twitter accounts which advance anti-vaccination beliefs. Studying these
accounts reveals that anti-vaccination is part of a larger moral and
epistemological universe of belief. Anti-vaccination advocates on Twitter use a
digital activist identity to create affective networks which draw from
epistemologies of conspiracy theory and connect to current political events.
Anti-vaccination advocates on Twitter are not uninformed. Rather, they ascribe
to their own process of information legitimization. Anti-vaccination advocates
on Twitter draw from their complex epistemologies and affective networks to build
an alternative immunology which focuses on maintaining the purity of the
individual body as a metaphor for protection of the state and of humanity

  1. 10.25394/pgs.12762080.v1
Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12762080
Date05 August 2020
CreatorsMattie Elizabeth Bruton (9205124)
Source SetsPurdue University
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis
Relationhttps://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Morality_Epistemology_and_Activism_How_Anti-vaccination_Advocates_on_Twitter_Construct_a_Rhetoric_of_Alternative_Immunity/12762080

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