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Trends in the Business of Misinformation in Six Eastern European Countries: An Overview

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2020), 11 pp.

CC BY

"All six reports find that misinformation is prevalent, yet the channels used for distribution of such content are somewhat different. The misinformation landscape in Serbia, for example, is dominated by mainstream media outlets. Small misinformation websites simply cannot compete with “misinformation giants” like the tabloid newspaper Blic. In Bosnia & Herzegovina, mainstream media are also the main sources of misinformation. Among the alternative sources of misinformation, the most common are “anonymous, for-profit websites offering no true journalistic value.” The mainstream media in Hungary are also known as propaganda and misinformation channels. In addition to them, however, the Hungarian report uncovered large independent networks of misinformation websites. In Slovakia, misinformation websites are run by “multiple independent entities” whereas in Moldova, misinformation is spread through mainstream media and, distinctively, through Russian misinformation websites." (Introduction, page 1)
Who Funds Misinformation? 2
Networks and Connections, 4
Takeaways: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 6
Methodology Challenges, 7
Towards a New Methodology to Track Misinformation Players, 9