The rhetoric of misinformation in the United States: A narrative review of communication strategies for digital civic resilience

Misinformation threatens democratic discourse and public well-being in the United States. This narrative review examines how misinformation operates as persuasion and explores communication strategies for building digital civic resilience. Through interpretive synthesis of interdisciplinary scholarship from rhetoric, communication studies, psychology, and media studies, this review identifies key rhetorical mechanisms enabling misinformation spread, including emotional appeals, identity-based messaging, and algorithmic amplification. Major intervention strategies discussed include prebunking, media literacy education, and community-centered approaches. Findings suggest that fact-checking alone proves insufficient; effective responses must address underlying social and structural conditions. This review argues for moving beyond individual inoculation toward collective practices of critical engagement that sustain democratic participation in digital environments.