Universities across the world are in a strong position to sidestep the hype and help regulators and public communicators of all kinds respond quickly and effectively to the threat of online disinformation in time for the next big year of elections. Agile, well-informed regulation is achievable.
Read MoreNumbers have unique power in public discourse but have often been used in misleading ways. There is a long history of spurious numerical claims about climate change, public health, and immigration. Poor objective and subjective numeracy also mean many people struggle to judge statistics. Using data from our in-depth, longitudinal qualitative fieldwork, in our new article we explore how people gauge the trustworthiness of numerical dis- and misinformation on personal messaging platforms.
Read MoreOur new public report from the Everyday Misinformation Project. Based on a nationally-representative survey of 2,000 people, the findings cast serious doubt on whether these tags are currently effective as misinformation warnings. Meta can do better.
Read MoreIn this guest post, Mohamed Zayani (Georgetown University) and Joe F. Khalil (Northwestern University) explain the argument of their new book, out now in my series with Oxford University Press.
Read MoreMost research into online misinformation has investigated its direct effects—the impact it may have on citizens’ beliefs and behaviour. Much less attention has been paid to how citizens themselves make sense of misinformation as a broader social problem, even though such attitudes are likely to shape how people respond to anti-misinformation interventions.
In this article we integrated some select theories of narrative, identity, cultural capital, and social distinction to examine how people construct the problem of misinformation and their orientation to it.
Hot off the press… the latest publication from the Everyday Misinformation Project, out now in Media, Culture & Society.
Read MoreWe have a new opening at Loughborough for a postdoc on the Everyday Misinformation Project.
Read MoreIn this guest post, the latest in a series by Oxford Studies in Digital Politics authors, William H. Dutton explains the big idea underlying his new book.
Read MoreThis is the latest research article from the Everyday Misinformation Project that I’m leading. The project, which is funded by the Leverhulme trust, began in April 2021 and runs until March 2024.
For this piece, we explored a previously-unexamined practice our fieldwork uncovered: when users create “group rules” to prevent misinformation entering their everyday interactions.
Read MoreWe have two new jobs available in the Communication and Media department here at Loughborough University. The recruitment is open field with regard to specialism.
Read MoreThis year I’m on the bill at the Cheltenham Science Festival.
Read MoreIn the latest guest post by Oxford Studies in Digital Politics authors, Johanna Dunaway (Texas A&M University) and Kathleen Searles (Louisiana State University) explain the approach and findings of their new book.
Read MoreFor this study, we were interested in testing whether the different kinds of news diets people consume might differentially equip them to discern between true and false news. We also wanted to examine whether there were any connections between discerning true and false news and sharing those types of news on social media. The findings revealed a campaign disinformation divide.
Read MoreAllie Kosterich, Assistant Professor of Communications and Media Management at Fordham University, writes about her new book News Nerds, which explains the nature and outcomes of tech-induced changes in journalism. Out now with Oxford University Press, in the Oxford Studies in Digital Politics series.
Read MoreWe developed an affordances-based conceptual framework to distinguish between platforms, and we narrowed news sharing behaviour down to amplification of false and exaggerated news. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show empirically a connection between Instagram use and the amplification of misleading information among ordinary social media users. A publication accepted in early 2021 and delayed by the impact of the pandemic, it’s great to see this out, in all its typeset glory, at this venerable interdisciplinary journal.
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The Everyday Misinformation Project team will be presenting its latest findings at the American Sociological Association (ASA) Media Sociology Symposium on August 4.
Our talk is entitled ‘“I Would Always be Careful About What I Receive”: Online Misinformation, Epistemic Norms, and Social Distinction,’ and is by Natalie-Anne Hall, Andrew Chadwick and Cristian Vaccari.
In this latest study from the project, based on a thematic analysis of longitudinal, in-depth interview data (N=182) we reveal some key epistemic norms governing the everyday consumption and sharing of information and the social distinctions these norms establish. In the qualitative phase of our fieldwork, many participants who said they did not frequently encounter misinformation through personal messaging were well aware of its existence, and willingly expressed views about those they believed were taken in by it. Deception was presented as a problem experienced by others who are more “naïve,” “biased,” or less “media literate” than themselves. These narratives reflect a keen awareness of the normative epistemic value placed on objectivity and media literacy in today’s societies. However, they simultaneously reveal that those making such social distinctions are less likely to value anti-misinformation interventions because they are deemed irrelevant to their individual everyday practices. This conflicts with the reality that addressing misinformation must inevitably be a collective and inclusive social endeavour.
The symposium will be held virtually, and our session will be at 10am PDT, which is 6pm BST. Registration details and the programme can be found here.
Last week I appeared on the Social Media and Politics Podcast to talk about the new public report Covid Vaccine Misinformation and Personal Messaging: The Challenge of Challenging Everyday Misinformation. We had a wide ranging discussion covering the hybrid character of this engagement, the role of qualitative research in project designs, and the importance of person-centred solutions to countering online misinformation.
Read MoreToday we publish the first public report from the Everyday Misinformation Project. Covid Vaccines and Online Personal Messaging: The Challenge of Challenging Everyday Misinformation uncovers the social norms that shape whether and how people do or do not challenge misinformation about Covid vaccines on personal messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Read MoreIn the latest Guest Post by authors from the Oxford Studies in Digital Politics series, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (Reuters Institute, Oxford University) and Sarah Anne Ganter (School of Communication, Simon Fraser University) write about their new book The Power of Platforms: Shaping Media and Society. Out now.
Read MoreOn May 5 I’ll be giving a Gresham Lecture at Gresham College in central London.
Read MoreI have a new piece out today in The Conversation, outlining my critique of the Royal Society’s new report, The Online Information Environment.
Read MoreI'm Professor of Political Communication in the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture and the School of Social Sciences at Loughborough University, where I also direct the Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C).
I'm Professor of Political Communication in the Department of Communication and Media at Loughborough University, where I am also director of the Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C).
The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power is published by Oxford University Press and is now in its second edition. It was awarded the Best Book Award of the American Political Science Association Information Technology and Politics Section and the International Journal of Press/Politics Best Book Award.
Banner photos: © Andrew Chadwick
