Nov 5, 2019
How is the confidence of politicians affected by the increased use of the internet and social media? What role do so-called alternative facts play in political campaigns? And what does the connection between this new media landscape and the growth of populist parties look like?
As an increasing proportion of the population acquires news via
social media, the need for source criticism becomes greater and to
be able to have a constructive democratic conversation we have to
share a common idea of what is true and not. But what happens when
this fundamental part of the democratic system breaks down?
Award-winning researcher Ekaterina Zhuravskaya is one of the
world's most cited researchers. In her research, she has studied,
among other things, how the Internet as a phenomenon affects
voters' confidence in sitting governments and the support of
populist parties. She has also studied the role of so-called
alternative facts in voters' worldview and voting patterns, a study
conducted in the context of the French presidential election in
2017.
In this seminar from SNS, she talks about her research on the
interaction between politics, social media and fake news.