The Everyday Misinformation Project
There is growing concern that personal messaging platforms such as WhatsApp (the most popular online service in many countries around the world including the UK) are playing a major role in the spread of misinformation. As leader of this Leverhulme-funded project I developed and applied an innovative new theoretical and methodological framework based on a conceptualisation of these services as hybrid public-interpersonal communication networks. Combining in-depth longitudinal qualitative fieldwork in three UK regions with participants’ use of a customised smartphone app and nationally representative panel surveys of the UK population, the project ran for three years (2021-2024) and provided for two postdocs.
Some things from this project so far:
Lawson, B. T., Chadwick, A., Hall, N-A., & Vaccari, C. (2024). The Trustworthiness of Peers and Public Discourse: Exploring How People Navigate Numerical Dis/misinformation on Personal Messaging Platforms. Information, Communication & Society.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., & Hall, N-A. (2024). What Explains the Spread of Misinformation in Online Personal Messaging Networks? Exploring the Role of Conflict Avoidance. Digital Journalism, 12(5), 574–593.
— Download pdf.Hall, N-A., Chadwick, A., & Vaccari, C. (2024). Online Misinformation and Everyday Ontological Narratives of Social Distinction. Media, Culture & Society, 46(3), 572–590.
— Download pdf.Hall, N-A., Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., Lawson, B., & Akolgo, P. (2024). Research Update: Misinformation on Personal Messaging—Are WhatsApp’s Warnings Effective? Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University. 28pp.
— Press release.
— Download pdf.Hall, N-A., Lawson, B. T., Vaccari, C., & Chadwick, A. (2023). Beyond Quick Fixes: How Users Make Sense of Misinformation Warnings on Personal Messaging. Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University. June. 40pp.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A., Hall, N-A., & Vaccari, C. (2023). Misinformation Rules!? Could “Group Rules” Reduce Misinformation in Online Personal Messaging? New Media & Society.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C. and Hall, N. (2022). Covid Vaccines and Online Personal Messaging: The Challenge of Challenging Everyday Misinformation. Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University. April. 34pp.
— Download pdf.
— Interview on the Social Media and Politics Podcast. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the podcast website.Visit the project website.
The New Crisis of Public Communication
This project, which began in 2017 and has involved several collaborators, seeks to explain the long-term impact of digital media on the civic cultures of liberal democracies. A major focus is on the everyday social norms that mutually co-evolve with digital technologies and shape the sharing and correction of misinformation and disinformation online. The project incorporates the establishment of a new centre at Loughborough University, the Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C), funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation and ESRC for PhD and postdoctoral positions at Loughborough, a significant grant from the Leverhulme Trust (see above), and a book I’m working on (under contract with Oxford University Press).
Some things from this project so far:
Vaccari, C., Chadwick, A., & Kaiser, J. (2023). The Campaign Disinformation Divide: Believing and Sharing News in the 2019 UK General Election. Political Communication, 40(1), 4–23.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C. and Kaiser, J. (2022). The Amplification of Exaggerated and False News on Social Media: The Roles of Platform Use, Motivations, Affect, and Ideology. American Behavioral Scientist, pp. 1–18.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A. (2022). Breaking Democracy: Lies, Deception and Disinformation. Gresham College Lecture, Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, London. May 5.
— Watch video and download accompanying article and slides at Gresham’s website.Kaiser, J., Vaccari, C. and Chadwick, A. (2022). Partisan Blocking: Biased Responses to Shared Misinformation Contribute to Network Polarization on Social Media. Journal of Communication.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A. and Stanyer, J. (2022). Deception as a Bridging Concept in the Study of Disinformation, Misinformation, and Misperceptions: Toward a Holistic Framework. Communication Theory, 32(1), 1-24.
— Awarded the Honourable Mention for the International Communication Association’s Kaid-Sanders Award for the Best Article in the field of political communication.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C. and Kaiser, J. (2022). The Amplification of Exaggerated and False News on Social Media: The Roles of Platform Use, Motivations, Affect, and Ideology. American Behavioral Scientist, pp. 1–18.
— Download pdf.Ross, A., Chadwick, A. and Vaccari, C. (2021). Digital Media and the Proliferation of Public Opinion Cues Online: Biases and Vulnerabilities in the New Attention Economy. in Morrison, J., Birks, J. and Berry, M. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Political Journalism (Routledge), pp. 241-251.
— Download pdf.Baker, C. R. and Chadwick, A. (2021). Corrupted Infrastructures of Meaning: Post-truth Identities Online. in Tumber, H. and Waisbord, S. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism (Routledge), pp. 312-323.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A. (2020). Four Challenges for the Future of Digital Politics Research in Dutton, W. H. (ed) A Research Agenda for Digital Politics (Edward Elgar), pp. 2–11
— See webpage.Chadwick, A. (2020). Toward a Richer Understanding of the Problem of Indeterminacy in Digital Culture. Keynote. Communication Sciences Doctoral Winter School, Universidade Nova de Lisbon, February 7.
—Video available here.Vaccari, C. and Chadwick, A. (2020). Deepfakes and Disinformation: Exploring the Impact of Synthetic Political Video on Deception, Uncertainty, and Trust in News. Social Media + Society, January-March, pp. 1–13.
Russell, A. (2020). Coming to Terms With Dysfunctional Hybridity: A Conversation with Andrew Chadwick on the Challenges to Liberal Democracy in the Second-wave Networked era. Studies in Communication Sciences 20 (1), pp. 1–15.
Chadwick, A. (2019). The New Crisis of Public Communication: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research on Digital Media and Politics. Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University, December 12, 2019. 22pp.
Chadwick, A. and Vaccari, C. (2019) News Sharing on UK Social Media: Misinformation, Disinformation & Correction. Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University. 32pp.
Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C. and O'Loughlin, B. (2018) ‘Do Tabloids Poison the Well of Social Media? Explaining Democratically Dysfunctional News Sharing' New Media & Society. 20 (11): 4255–4274
Oxford Coronavirus Attitudes, Explanations, and Narratives (OCEANS) Project
From the summer of 2020, I was part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers examining Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK. We published a study in Psychological Medicine on December, 2020. More here. A further article, led by me, examining the role of online social endorsement and media diet in vaccine hesitancy published in Social Media and Society in March 2021. You can read an article about the study on Medium here and download the article free of charge at the journal website here. A further study, using an innovative experimental design testing how ten different information conditions shape vaccine hesitancy, was published in The Lancet Public Health on May 13, 2021. Details here. I published a summary piece in The Conversation in June 2021.
Some things from this project:
Freeman, D., Loe, B. S., Yu, L-M., Freeman, J., Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., Shanyinde, M., Harris, V., Waite, F., Rosebrock, L., Petit, A., Vanderslott, S., Lewandowsky, S., Larkin, M., Innocenti, S., Pollard, A. J., McShane, H., & Lambe, S. (2021). Effects of Different Types of Written Vaccination Information on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK (OCEANS-III): A Single-blind, Parallel-group, Randomised Controlled Trial. The Lancet Public Health, 6(6), pp. 416-427.
— Download pdf.
Chadwick, A., Kaiser, J., Vaccari, C., Freeman, D., Lambe, S., Loe, B. S., Vanderslott, S., Lewandowsky, S., Conroy, M., Ross, A. R. N., Innocenti, S., Pollard, A. J., Waite, F., Larkin, M., Rosebrock, L., Jenner, L., McShane, H., Giubilini, A., Petit, A., & Yu, Ly-Mee (2021). Online Social Endorsement and Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK. Social Media + Society, April 2, pp. 1–17.
— Download pdf.
Freeman, D., Loe, B. S., Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., Waite, F., Rosebrock, L., Jenner, L., Petit, A., Lewandowsky, S., Vanderslott, S., Innocenti, S., Larkin, M., Giubilini, A., Yu, L-M, McShane, H., Pollard, A.J., & Lambe, S. (2020). COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK: The Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes, and Narratives Survey (OCEANS) II. Psychological Medicine. pp. 1–15. December 11.
— Download pdf.
The Hybrid Media System Project
This project began in 2011 and has so far resulted in a book: Chadwick, A. (2013) The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power (Oxford University Press; Second Edition, 2017) and several articles. The book was awarded the Best Book Award of the American Political Science Association Information Technology and Politics Section (2014) and the International Journal of Press/Politics Best Book Award (2016). The second edition published in 2017. In addition to a new preface, it features an extensive new chapter applying the conceptual framework to the extraordinary 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and the rise of Donald Trump.
Some things from this project:
Chadwick, A., Kaiser, J., Vaccari, C., Freeman, D., Lambe, S., Loe, B. S., Vanderslott, S., Lewandowsky, S., Conroy, M., Ross, A. R. N., Innocenti, S., Pollard, A. J., Waite, F., Larkin, M., Rosebrock, L., Jenner, L., McShane, H., Giubilini, A., Petit, A., & Yu, Ly-Mee (2021). ‘Online Social Endorsement and Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK.’ Social Media + Society, April 2, pp. 1–17.
— Download pdf.Ross, A., Chadwick, A. and Vaccari, C. (2021). ‘Digital Media and the Proliferation of Public Opinion Cues Online: Biases and Vulnerabilities in the New Attention Economy.’ in Morrison, J., Birks, J. and Berry, D. M. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Political Journalism (Routledge).
— Download pdf.Baker, C. R. and Chadwick, A. (2021). ‘Corrupted Infrastructures of Meaning: Post-truth Identities Online.’ in Tumber, H. and Waisbord, S. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism (Routledge), pp. 312–323.
— Download pdf.Watts, E. and Chadwick, A. (2020). ‘“With and Between You All”: Celebrity Status, User-Audience Networks, and Representative Claims in Emma Watson’s Feminist Politics’ in Lind, R. A. (ed) Produsing Theory in a Digital World 3.0: The Intersection of Audiences and Production in Contemporary Theory. (Peter Lang).
— Download pdf.
— See blog post.Russell, A. (2020). Coming to Terms With Dysfunctional Hybridity: A Conversation with Andrew Chadwick on the Challenges to Liberal Democracy in the Second-wave Networked era. Studies in Communication Sciences 20 (1), pp. 1–15.
Chadwick, A., O'Loughlin, B. and Vaccari, C. (2017) ‘Why People Dual Screen Political Debates and Why It Matters for Democratic Engagement’ Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 61.
Chadwick, A. and Dennis, J. (2017) ‘Social Media, Professional Media, and Mobilization in Contemporary Britain: Explaining the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Citizens’ Movement 38 Degrees’ Political Studies 65 (1), pp. 42–60.
Chadwick, A., Dennis, J., and Smith, A. P. (2016) ‘Politics in the Age of Hybrid Media: Power, Systems, and Media Logics’ in Bruns, A., Enli, G., Skogerbø, E., Larsson, A. O. and Christensen, C. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics (Routledge), pp. 7–22.
Chadwick, A. (2015) ‘The “Social Media” Maneuver’ Social Media and Society1 (1), pp. 1-2.
Vaccari, C. Chadwick, A. and O'Loughlin, B. (2015) ‘Dual-Screening the Political: Media Events, Social Media, and Citizen Engagement’ Journal of Communication 65 (6), pp. 1041–1061.
Chadwick, A. and Collister, S. (2014) ‘Boundary-Drawing Power and the Renewal of Professional News Organizations: The Case of the Guardian and the Edward Snowden NSA Leak’ International Journal of Communication 8.
Chadwick, A. (2014) ‘From “Building the Actions” to “Being in the Moment”: Older and Newer Media Logics in Political Advocacy’ The Nonprofit Quarterly21 (1), pp. 54-61.
Chadwick, A. (2011) ‘The Political Information Cycle in a Hybrid News System: the British Prime Minister and the “Bullygate” Affair’ The International Journal of Press/Politics 16 (1), pp. 3-29.
Chadwick, A. (2011) ‘Britain’s First Live Televised Party Leaders’ Debate: From the News Cycle to the Political Information Cycle’ Parliamentary Affairs 64 (1), pp. 24-44.
Chadwick, A. (2011) ‘The Hybrid Media System’ Presentation to the European Consortium for Political Research General Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, August 25–27.
Oxford Studies in Digital Politics
Digital communication technologies are now central to our understanding of political, social, economic, and cultural life. This book series brings together scholars with an interest in understanding the information and communication environments which shape, and are shaped by, politics. The series is concerned with theoretical and conceptual debates, institutions, behaviour, and policy issues. It provides an important, high-profile publishing outlet for a range of talented authors, both established and up-and-coming.
The series is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, drawing upon perspectives in media and communication, political science, international relations, sociology, science and technology studies, policy sciences, law, psychology, public administration, cultural studies, economics, management, information science, and human geography.
Series books have been recognised with multiple distinguished international book awards—26 awards to date.
Click here for a current snapshot of the series, including published and forthcoming titles.
For further details and information on how to submit a proposal, please visit the OUP Studies in Digital Politics webpages.
