• What are the factors that cause misinformation to spread? To answer this question, researchers have focused on two broad areas. One is the social and psychological characteristics of audience members who decide what to consume and share. Another is the social media networks themselves, and the technologies that encourage and discourage user behaviors.

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  • Vaccine refusal poses a major public health risk, especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though vaccines are safe and effective, there have been undercurrents of distrust for decades. However, the affordances of interactive media have allowed hesitant parents to encounter misinformation, and producers of anti-vaccine disinformation to reach new audiences.

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  • The collision between a global pandemic and a world with global connectivity may be unprecedented, but scientists have a long tradition of trying to understand how societies respond to crisis. This research review examines the intersections of misinformation and public health, and explores how humans make sense of emergencies.

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  • The conflict narrative is a natural way to describe responses to disinformation. But is it the best way? Tim Hwang argues that the common battle narrative we use to frame our understanding of media manipulation threatens to thwart our response.

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  • Hate speech online is particularly disturbing for its commonness. This kind of speech is appropriated and shared by ordinary citizens, is used to support open confrontations between nations, and can be approved or encouraged by state governments. But what are the linkages between hate speech and disinformation?

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  • Producers of Disinformation

    Who creates disinformation, and why? In some cases, the motivations seem strictly economic, while other campaigns have obvious political motives. However, it seems increasingly difficult to draw clear distinctions between the two, suggesting that these boundaries are shifting. This literature review draws on recent research on case studies from India, Russia, the United States, and…

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  • If we can’t show that propaganda and disinformation have direct, persuasive effects, then why should we care? David Karpf argues that the answer lies in a foundational myth of democracy. Rampant online disinformation threatens to unravel that myth, and with it the fabric of our democratic society.

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  • Is the crisis in American democracy the result of propagandist intervention? Yochai Benkler reflects on the origins of current disfunction, encouraging scholars to distinguish between evidence of activities and evidence of effects, and urging us to look past recent political shocks to the roots of our epistemic crisis.

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  • Election Interference

    This research review addresses the concept of election interference, specifically online or digital election interference. The phenomenon has gained a great deal of popular and scholarly attention since 2014, particularly following the election of Donald Trump and accusations of foreign meddling in European elections.

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  • Contexts of Misinformation

    Terms such as “fake news,” misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, polarization, and networked harassment have rocketed to prominence in recent years. This literature review addresses some of the contexts of misinformation, beginning with political polarization and the twin concepts of ideological echo chambers and filter bubbles.

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