ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 turns to Sweden as a case permitting us to elucidate how media and information literacy is performatively enlisted not just in establishing what counts as credible and trustworthy knowledge but also in manufacturing doubt. In Sweden, critical assessment of information and information sources, a cornerstone of media and information literacy, is assigned a prominent role in the fight against misinformation and disinformation. There is one special word for it in Swedish, similar to that in other Germanic languages – källkritik [source criticism]. It is taught in school, endorsed in television programmes, promoted by government agencies and libraries, and satirised and made fun of on social media. Even if this amount of attention is unique to Sweden, the trend can also be detected in other countries. Yet, the Swedish preoccupation with one term, rather than a host of different expressions as is the case in many other languages, makes for a particularly useful case, which functions as a magnifying glass. This is reinforced by the exposed position of Sweden as a projection screen for different, often opposing political ideas. This chapter shows how the concept of source criticism brings together diverse actors, spanning policymakers, educators, librarians, and even politicians, and also how it is increasingly used as a rhetorical device to criticise opponents. The chapter draws on a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses of Twitter feeds, media material, and Google and YouTube search results. The authors argue that certain expressions of media and information literacy have been reverse-engineered, repurposed, and have begun to contribute to the destabilisation of trust in public knowledge. The chapter concludes by presenting the neutrality paradox to grasp the various tensions brought into relief.
