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Building Trusted Media in a Fragile Setting: An Evaluation of Radio Ndeke Luka in Central African Republic

Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz

Michigan State University (2024), 8 pp.

"Can the impact of a news radio station on a highly vulnerable population in a crisis-affected country be measured? The installation of new FM transmitters for Radio Ndeke Luka in Beloko, Birao, and Obo in the Central African Republic offered an opportunity to carry out a field study measuring the i ... mpact of our radio station before and after its introduction in these remote regions of the country. The results of this study reveal a tangible impact and a shift in listeners’ perceptions, particularly regarding misinformation. The Central African Republic, marked by a weak central state, widespread poverty, and recurring intercommunal conflicts, is particularly vulnerable to misinformation. Radio Ndeke Luka, a project of Fondation Hirondelle in CAR, plays a crucial role by broadcasting reliable news 24/7 in both French and Sango across the country. Thanks to funding from the European Union, new FM transmitters for RNL were installed between December 2021 and April 2022 in remote areas of the Central African Republic, specifically in Beloko, Birao, and Obo. This provided an opportunity to assess the radio’s impact on local populations before and after the installation. Investigators from the local network of IMMAR Research & Consultancy followed a protocol developed by Dr. Jeff Conroy Krutz, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University. This protocol ensured a random selection of adult participants and gender balance. In total, over 1,700 people were interviewed before the transmitters were installed, and more than 1,800 afterwards, within the same communities across the three localities. Measured Impacts Increase in Audience: RNL became the most listened-to radio station in the targeted areas within months of the new transmitters going live. Relevance and Impartiality: 52% of listeners considered RNL’s programs essential to their daily lives. Trust and impartiality scores also improved between the pre- and post-launch periods. Trust in RNL far exceeded that of other locally accessible radio stations. Combating Misinformation: Residents of the three areas reported significantly greater confidence in their ability to distinguish fact from fiction after the installation of the transmitters, which facilitated access to RNL programs." (https://www.hirondelle.org) more

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“We don’t believe in [the] Coronavirus; we believe in Allah. Whatever happens, it happens from Allah”: Pakistani media’s response to countering conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic

Madeeha Naz, Amir Hamza Marwan

Newspaper Research Journal, volume 46, issue 1 (2024), pp. 6-28

"This study examines the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic by the four leading newspapers of Pakistan—Dawn, The News, Daily Times and The Nation—when they were responsible for informing and educating the public during a health crisis hit by conspiracy theories. The researchers utilized content a ... more

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Die TikTok-Intifada – Der 7. Oktober & die Folgen im Netz: Analyse & Empfehlungen der Bildungsstätte Anne Frank

Deborah Schnabel, Eva Berendsen

Frankfurt am Main: Bildungsstätte Anne Frank (2024), 38 pp.

"Seit dem Terrorangriff der Hamas auf Israel am 7. Oktober 2023 spielen soziale Netzwerke eine bedeutende und vielfach unterschätzte Rolle bei der Verbreitung von Terrorpropaganda, Falschinformationen, Israelhass, Antisemitismus und Verschwörungsnarrativen. Die Bildungsstätte Anne Frank fasst in ... more

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Debunking and exposing misinformation among fringe communities: Testing source exposure and debunking anti-Ukrainian misinformation among German fringe communities

Johannes Christiern Santos Okholm, Amir Ebrahimi Fard, Marijn ten Thij

Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, volume 5, issue 1 (2024), 13 pp.

"Through an online field experiment, we test traditional and novel counter-misinformation strategies among fringe communities. Though generally effective, traditional strategies have not been tested in fringe communities, and do not address the online infrastructure of misinformation sources support ... more

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Mapping a Surge of Disinformation in Africa

Washington, DC: Africa Center for Strategic Studies, March 13 (2024)

"Disinformation campaigns have targeted every region of the continent. At least 39 African countries have been the target of a specific disinformation campaign. Disinformation tends to be concentrated. Half of the countries subjected to disinformation (20 of the 39) have been targeted three or more ... times, up from just seven countries meeting that threshold in 2022. African countries experiencing conflict are subject to much greater levels of disinformation—facing a median of 5 campaigns– highlighting the connection between instability and disinformation. Countries confronting disinformation typically face multiple disinformation actors. At times, these actors amplify one another’s misleading narratives, while at others, they clash or stay in separate lanes. Nearly 60 percent of disinformation campaigns on the continent are foreign state-sponsored—with Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Qatar as the primary sponsors. Russia continues to be the primary purveyor of disinformation in Africa, sponsoring 80 documented campaigns, targeting more than 22 countries. This represents nearly 40 percent of all disinformation campaigns in Africa. These 80 campaigns have reached many millions of users through tens of thousands of coordinated fake pages and posts. Aggressively leveraging disinformation is a mainstay of Russia’s use of irregular channels to gain influence in Africa. Russia has promulgated disinformation to undermine democracy in at least 19 African countries, contributingto the continent’s backsliding on this front. African elections provide prime opportunities for disinformation. Some employ mercenary disinfo-ops teams. One private Israeli group, dubbed “Team Jorge,” has reportedly implemented disinformation campaigns to disrupt over 20 African elections since 2015. Domestic actors have also increasingly integrated disinformation into their political playbooks, notably during Kenya’s 2022 and Nigeria’s 2023 election. African countries that uphold presidential term limits (i.e., those with stronger checks and balances) are less exposed to foreign sponsored disinformation, with an average of 1.5 campaigns compared to an average of over 3 campaigns for countries without term limits. This underscores the common aim of foreign disinformation to prop up authoritarian actors." (Highlights) more

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Pop-up-Propaganda: Epikrise der russischen Selbstvergiftung. Mit einem illustrierten "Ratgeber für das Überleben"

Irina Rastorgueva

Thomas Martin (Nachwort)

Berlin: Matthes & Seitz (2024), 337 pp.

"Während innerhalb Russlands das Verbot kritischer Medien und die Gleichschaltung der verstaatlichten Sender eine beinahe karikaturhafte Erzählung über traditionelle Werte und die Notwendigkeit der "Militärischen Spezialoperation" hervorbringen, arbeiten sorgfältig geplante Propagandaaktionen i ... more

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Quelle: Künstliche Intelligenz?

Sören Torrau, Florian Köhler

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) (2024), 13 pp.

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Have people ‘had enough of experts’? The impact of populism and pandemic misinformation on institutional trust in comparative perspective

Vaclav Stetka, Francisco Brandao, Sabina Mihelj, Fanni Toth, Daniel Hallin, Danilo Rothberg, Paulo Ferracioli, Beata Klimkiewicz

Information, Communication & Society (2024), 22 pp.

"Public trust in institutions is a key prerequisite for effective crisis management. However, the rise of populism and misinformation in recent years made it increasingly difficult to maintain institutional trust. Despite this recognition, we still lack a systematic understanding of how exposure to ... more

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"I turned my fear into courage": Red-tagging and state violence against young human rights defenders in the Philippines

London: Amnesty International (2024), 73 pp.

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Two Years On: An Analysis of Russian State and Pro-Kremlin Information Warfare in the Context of the Invasion of Ukraine

London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) (2024), 25 pp.

"This report provides an overview of how Russian state and pro-Kremlin propaganda undermining international support for Ukraine has evolved over the two years since the beginning of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. It outlines a range of semi-covert tactics through which Russian state an ... more

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News Distortion in Times of Crises: Covid-19 Case in the Arab Media

Mostafa Shehata, Noha Adel

International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 5222-5246

"This article investigates news distortion within the Arab media ecosystem, as manifested on Arab media Facebook pages and perceived by Arab journalists during the COVID-19 pandemic. A textual analysis was conducted on 6 news Facebook pages affiliated with major local media channels in 6 Arab countr ... more

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The Routledge Handbook of Discourse and Disinformation

Stefania Maci, Massimiliano Demata, Mark McGlashan, Philip Seargeant (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2024), xxi, 431 pp.

"This handbook offers a comprehensive overview of research into discourses of disinformation, misinformation, post-truth, alternative facts, hate speech, conspiracy theories, and 'fake news'. Divided into two sections, it provides a detailed look at the methodological challenges and approaches for s ... more

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Understanding climate change conspiracy beliefs: A comparative outlook

Daniel Stockemer, Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau

Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, volume 5, issue 6 (2024), 12 pp.

"Are climate change conspiracy theories widespread across the world, or do we find climate change conspiracy beliefs more so in some countries than in others? This research note explores the prevalence of conspiracy beliefs that identify climate change as a hoax across eight geographically and cultu ... more

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Disinformation and Peacebuilding in Sub-Saharan Africa: Security Implications of AI-Altered Information Environments

Eduardo Albrecht, Eleonore Fournier-Tombs, Rebecca Brubaker

New York, Geneva: United Nations University (UNU) (2024), 39 pp.

"[...] this report aims to further explore the way in which AI technologies as they currently stand impact peace and conflict, and what methods might be used to mitigate their adverse effects - through the development of better tools and the inclusion of peace and conflict considerations in AI gover ... nance frameworks. The report presents the following findings: 1. AI is a driver of disinformation which adversely impacts peacebuilding efforts. 2. There are several ways to mitigate AI-powered disinformation. 3. AI can also be used to promote peacebuilding, although these mechanisms are still in their early stages. In relation to these findings, the report proposes the following recommendations: 1. More funding and support should be provided to civil society organizations’ efforts to expand media literacy and fact-checking initiatives using AI tools to enhance capabilities. 2. Governments need to work with civil society to develop and implement comprehensive, transparent legal frameworks combating disinformation. These legislative measures need to support digital and media literacy campaigns and fact-checking organizations. 3. Social media companies need to expand investment and research into understanding local information environments, so they can better identify and respond to instances of disinformation in all contexts in which they operate and enhance transparency. 4. Peacebuilding organizations need to carefully consider local media ecosystems and information environments when conducting conflict analyses, and factor these dynamics into their projects’ frameworks. Currently, disinformation exacerbates existing grievances and polarization, can act as a trigger for violence, leads individuals to make decisions based on false information, and creates or intensifies mistrust of institutions and international peacebuilding efforts. The efforts of journalists and civil society organizations to combat these effects, primarily through media literacy initiatives and factchecking, cannot keep up with the scope and scale of ‘fake news.’ Generative AI will increase the rate at which false content is produced and disseminated, and the quality or ‘believability’ of such content. Governments, civil society, and social media companies must work in tandem to combat the spread of disinformation and the impact it can have on peacebuilding efforts and security in sub-Saharan Africa." (Executive summary) more

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Miscommunicating the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Asian Perspective

Ran Wei et al.

London; New York: Routledge (2024), xiii, 236 pp.

"This book tackles the infodemic—the rapid, widespread diffusion of false, misleading, or inaccurate information about the disease and its ramifications—triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. With a focus on four Asian societies, the book compares and analyzes the spread of COVID-19 misinformation ... more

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Tackling Misinformation with Games: A Systematic Literature Review

Kristian Kiili, Juho Siuko, Manuel Ninaus

Interactive Learning Environments, volume 32, issue 10 (2024), pp. 7086-7101

"Misinformation and fake news are severe threats to society. The role of critical reading skills is crucial in the battle against misinformation. Despite the promising results of game-based interventions to mitigate the effects of misinformation, the corpus of research on games supporting critical r ... more

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Disinformation Debunked: Building Resilience Through Media and Information Literacy

Divina Frau-Meigs, Nicoleta Corbu (eds.)

London: Routledge (2024), 329 pp.

"The book highlights the underlying stakes that are involved in the fight against disinformation, from producing smart tools to generalizing their use beyond the journalistic profession. It considers the MIL theories and methodologies at work in the digital era, especially from the perspective of di ... more

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Unveiling Disinformation: Mapping Attacks on Brazil’s Electoral System and the Response of the Superior Electoral Court (2018–2023)

Regina Cazzamatta, Augusto Santos, Grazielle Albuquerque

International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 3551-3575

"Falsehoods targeting political parties and candidates have long been entrenched in Brazilian politics and monitored by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Since the rise of the far right in Brazil, the TSE has itself become a disinformation target. This study aims to unveil disinformation that has ... more

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Conspiracy beliefs and negative attitudes towards outgroups in times of crises: Experimental evidence from Germany

Rebecca Endtricht, Eylem Kanol

Plos One, volume 19, issue 11 e0312418 (2024), 20 pp.

"While research on the determinants of conspiracy beliefs has been growing, there is still limited attention given to the broader consequences of conspiracy theories. This study examines the effects of conspiratorial framing on outgroup evaluations in the context of societal crises. Using an experim ... more