Disinformation

Covid-19: What are the consequences of the unprecedented rush for knowledge?
The surge in COVID-19 research papers has put the spotlight on the peer review process and is changing the way we assess the quality of scientific literature.

Interview with Philipp Schmid on science denialism, misinformation & the importance of public confidence in the safety & effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine
Dr. Philipp Schmid is a scientific researcher at the Department of Psychology at the University of Erfurt (Germany). Philipp’s research aims at analysing the psychological reasons of science denialism. He is the lead author of the WHO guideline on how to respond to vocal vaccine denier in public and a co-author of the Debunking Handbook ...

What drives public trust? Broadening the traditional scope of science communication with TRESCA
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of our daily lives and, by now, we are all a bit more dependent on technology than we had been before. But how can we trust all the scientific information that we receive through the media? How can we have a common understanding of what is reliable when we are being exposed to massive online information flows? Do we trust the same truths? What kind of people are more susceptible to trusting conspiracy theories? Using a novel approach based on social science, the new EU-funded project TRESCA tackles these, and other, research questions.

Michael Hameleers : “The most effective way to combat mis- or disinformation seems to be a combination of media literacy programmes and fact-checking”
Michael Hameleers (PhD, University of Amsterdam) is Assistant Professor in Political Communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), Amsterdam, Netherlands. His research interests include populism, framing, (affective) polarization, and disinformation. Recently, most of his research is focused on the effects of misinformation and the effectiveness of corrective information. Michael Hameleers recently released a ...

Nahema Marchal: “People who seek junk content, because they find it entertaining or are simply curious, will always find it”
Nahema Marchal is a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and a researcher for the Computational Propaganda Project. Her research examines the relationship between social media and polarization and the manipulation of digital platforms in the context of mis- and disinformation campaigns. She is also an experienced media spokesperson and regularly ...

Renée DiResta: “The effectiveness of countering Covid-19 disinformation depends on the degree of trust your government enjoys”
Renée DiResta is the Technical Research Manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory. She investigates the spread of malign narratives across social and other media networks. Renee’s areas of research include disinformation and propaganda by state-sponsored actors, and health misinformation and conspiracy theories. Renee has advised Congress, the State Department, and other academic, civic, and business ...

Interview with Stephan Lewandowsky, cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol
Stephan Lewandowsky is a cognitive scientist with an interest in computational modeling. Recently, he has become particularly interested in how people update their memories if things they believe turn out to be false. This has led him to examine the persistence of misinformation and spread of “fake news” in society. He has become particularly interested ...

Interview with Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism on Covid-19 misinformation
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He is also Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford. He was previously Director of Research at the Reuters Institute and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics. His work focuses on changes in the news media, on political communication, and the ...

Fighting the ‘infodemic’: how coronavirus became the litmus test for tech companies’ struggle to contain mis- and disinformation
Facebook, Twitter and Google are among the actors pushed into action in the face of fast spreading Covid-19 disinformation but the efficiency of their efforts will need proper evaluation.