Information Literacy
16 items
Ten Riot Police, Twenty Minutes, a House That Had Not Collapsed — False Rescue Requests Went from 1 in 573 to 104 in 1,091
After the 2026 Kumamoto earthquake of 28 July, false rescue requests naming addresses that do not exist, and AI-generated videos purporting to show the damage, spread on social media. Measured by the same system, false posts among rescue requests numbered 1 out of 573 in the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake and 104 out of 1,091 in the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake. What changed is not the volume of malice but who pays for the correction: no longer the attention of readers, but the deployment of fire and police.
Cross-Axis Analysis of 22 Notes / Structural Patterns in Ignorance Production
A cross-axis reading of the 22 research notes (coding: 7 axes) accumulated in the Agnotology Lab. Top mechanisms: attention-control / silence-structuring / doubt-manufacturing. Actors: institution dominates with 15 notes. powerDirection: top-down accounts for 18 notes. The next research agenda emerges from both the strong biases and the blank spots.
Counter-Design Practices in Japan — A Structural Analysis of Domestic Attempts to Implement Epistemic Justice
This essay examines Counter-Design theory through domestic Japanese cases. Using five criteria (implementation of epistemic justice, collective intervention, analyzability of structure, continuous operation, transferability), it selects five cases and analyzes their target structures of ignorance production, forms of counter-design intervention, and achievements and limits.
Information Literacy as Counter-Design: Curriculum Principles Centered on Epistemic Justice
Conventional media literacy education is biased toward individual responsibility and does not address the production structure of ignorance. This essay proposes a counter-design theory built on three layers — analysis of the production structure, critical reading by recipients, and design of collective intervention — with epistemic justice at its core, and derives five curriculum design principles.
Fresh Graduate SNS Info Leaks Are Not a "Personal Problem" — Reading the Failure of Organizational Design
In early April 2026, two cases of SNS information leaks by new employees occurred in quick succession in Japan: a production company staffer working on Nippon TV's morning show "ZIP!" posted building ID and shift schedules on Instagram, and around the same time, a new graduate at Mitsubishi Electric Housing Equipment posted their NDA documents on X (formerly Twitter). Media and SNS discourse tend to reduce this to "young people's validation-seeking" or "generational issues," but this article rejects that framing. An Eltes survey published in March 2026 found that 43.3% of business people have posted work-related information on SNS, while only 22.7% have received SNS usage training. Leaks are not a "people problem" but an "organizational design problem." This article reads three structures — the Day-1 gap, the subcontractor blind spot, and the closed-account illusion — and proposes five design layers organizations must own.
The Open Access Paradox — How to Reach Those Who Cannot Be Reached
Does making information 'open' mean it reaches people? The knowledge gap hypothesis, the Matthew effect, and information poverty theory reveal that equalizing access does not necessarily reduce disparities. This note examines the structural limits of the open access movement and considers intermediary models as 'translation devices.'
Literature Map of Agnotology in the Japanese-speaking World 2022–2026 — Tracing the Birth of a Discipline
From the 2022 special issue of Journal of History of Science (Vol. 61) to the 2025 publication of 'Invitation to Agnotology,' this article organizes the development of agnotology research in the Japanese-speaking world as a literature map. We track researcher networks, major publications, and academic presentations chronologically to visualize the current state of this emerging academic field.
Motivated Ignorance — The Cognitive Structure of 'Not Wanting to Know'
Analyzing the mechanism by which individuals voluntarily choose to 'remain ignorant' rather than being forced into ignorance from external sources, from a cognitive science perspective. Examining how the 'illusion of knowledge' demonstrated by Sloman & Fernbach's 'The Knowledge Illusion' and motivated reasoning form the individual-level foundation of structural ignorance.
The Doubt Manufacturing Industry — The Sixty-Year War of Tobacco and Climate
This case study analyzes sixty years of history in which the tobacco and fossil fuel industries systematically 'manufactured doubt' against scientific consensus. From the fact that the same group of scientists and the same strategic patterns were repeatedly employed, 'doubt manufacturing' is theorized as a foundational mechanism of ignorance production.
Why Unreported Issues Are Treated as 'Nonexistent' — Media Agenda-Setting and Invisibilization in Japan
Why do 'unreported issues' disappear from social perception? This case study analyzes the 'non-reporting structure' built into Japanese media by the press club system, sponsor pressure, and audience metrics — through the lens of agnotology. It illuminates how agenda-setting theory and framing effects erase unreported problems by rendering them as 'nonexistent' in social cognition.
The Pitfalls of 'I Asked AI' — Authority Bias and the Hollowing Out of Knowledge
Authority bias in accepting AI output uncritically and knowledge hollowing from skill delegation. From calculators to GPS to LLMs—a recurring pattern.
The New Ignorance Produced by Algorithms — Filter Bubbles and Echo Chambers
Recommendation algorithms, search engine optimization, and social media feed design automatically determine what users do not see. This structural ignorance, which arises not from intentional design but as a consequence of optimization, is analyzed as a compound mechanism of attention control and complexity weaponization.
AI Amplification of the Brandolini Asymmetry — When the Cost of Producing Lies Approaches Zero
The proliferation of AI-generated content has amplified the asymmetry between the production cost of misinformation and the cost of correction (Brandolini's Law) by orders of magnitude. Employing RAND Corporation's 'Firehose of Falsehood' model, this essay analyzes the consequences of this structural transformation.
Epistemic Injustice and Information Access Gaps in NPOs — Visualizing Structures Where Voices Go Unheard
Applying Miranda Fricker's epistemic injustice theory to the NPO context, this analysis examines how testimonial injustice and hermeneutical injustice create structural information access gaps in policymaking. Through connections with the 'complaint gap' concept from the Quiet City Project, we envision counter-design approaches grounded in agnotology.
The Inhibitory Effect of Strategic Ignorance in EBPM — How 'Pretending Not to Know' Distorts Policy
Applying Linsey McGoey's strategic ignorance theory to Japan's EBPM promotion, this analysis examines the structural mechanisms by which evidence is not reflected in policy despite its existence. It reveals the structure of intentional ignorance behind rhetoric such as 'insufficient data' and 'still too early.'
Research Framework of the Agnotology Lab — An Inductive Coding Framework
From the perspective of agnotology, this note presents an inductive coding framework for multidimensional analysis of the 'production of ignorance.' Moving beyond conventional domain-based classification, a seven-axis tagging system structures research notes and allows cross-disciplinary patterns to emerge from the data.