A workshop on the issue of virality and influencers organised by the European Science-Media Hub (ESMH) on 3 April 2019 included various experts in the fields of communication technologies and social sciences to discuss how can technology carry and amplify messages, so that they ‘go viral’.
Consult the report of the workshop
“In view of the upcoming European elections, we seek to understand how key messages work online to motivate and attract people’s attention. Why do negative messages go viral more easily than positive ones?” asked STOA chair Eva Kaili MEP (S&D, EL).
Beside the technological content, the workshop involved also social sciences, tackling the psychological and social aspects of ‘viral media communication’ with a particular focus on political influence, for example the ‘Gilets Jaunes’ movement.
