Introduction: Governing Everyday Misinformation

Misinformation has shown itself in recent years to be an incredibly complicated and thorny societal problem. While most academic work on the subject looks at the largest and scariest examples of misinformation, it largely ignores the fundamental reality that to misinform is to be an imperfect person also known as a human. In this Introduction to the edited volume, Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons, the editors briefly explain the three scholarly traditions (The Everyday, Misinformation, and Governing Knowledge Commons) that are the nexus of each chapter in this tome. We also present several illustrative examples to highlight the thesis of this work, that misinformation is incredibly common and only through addressing the context and risk around it can we create nuanced and culturally specific solutions.