The aim of this study is to examine perceptions among civics teachersactive in upper primary and secondary schools in Sweden regardingdisinformation. In particular, the study focuses on ways in which disinformation inthe classroom interacts with media literacy as well as deliberative democraticideals. The study design is based in qualitative research and has been conductedthrough a series of interviews with said teachers, analyzed mainly through thetheory of deliberative democracy with focus also on media literacy. In terms ofresults, perceptions among teachers on the subject of disinformation generally linesup with established research in the fields of disinformation, deliberativedemocracy and media literacy. In particular, teachers of both primary andsecondary school in my sample calls for increased efforts when it comes to medialiteracy as the modern digital media landscape calls for extensive knowledge andskill in discerning credible sources from fake news. / <p>21-01-20</p>

This diploma thesis deals with the spread of manipulative, propagandistic and fake news in the Internet online environment. The spread of disinformation also occurred during the Czech presidential election, which took place in January 2018. This disinformation was spread mainly by the so-called alternative media, which are often associated with the spread of Russian propaganda. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the disinformation and its dissemination, the means used and forms of disinformation in the specified time period from November 2017 to March 2018 on selected news portals through qualitative textual analysis. In the theoretical part of this thesis, we present a comprehensive and detailed theoretical overview of disinformation and propaganda, its goals, aspects of dissemination, the resulting effect and possible ways how to defend against them. Similarly, we mention the individual steps of pragmalinguistics, which is theoretical basis for our research. In the empirical part of the work, we analyze the media content of five selected news sites, which we structurally divide according to individual media. At the end of our thesis we found out that there was a demonstrable spread of misleading,

This diploma thesis focuses on the dissemination of conspiracy theories, fake news and hoaxes and the role of media in this process. First, the basic concepts are explained and the topic of the thesis is put in a broader context. The functioning of disinformation media is described including the description of the local scene. Other channels used to deceive recipients include e-mails and applications, social networks, and word of mouth. Special attention is paid to the regular media and the rules according to which they should operate. The theory is followed by a practical part, which maps the spreading of specific misinformation not only through the media, but also fact-checking initiatives. Examples include conspiracy theories about the fire in Notre-Dame Cathedral, hoaxes about alleged refugees in Cheb, Czech Television journalist Marek Wollner and MP Olga Richterová, and the case of the dubious non-profit organization International Children's Cross. The analysis of these cases is conducted through a mixed research model: Data collection is carried out by a quantitative method, while working with them, qualitative methods associated with grounded theory are applied. The aim is to define and describe the forms that the media give to misinformation in their outputs, and to determine in which cases...

The aim of this study is to examine disinformation about the covid-19 vaccine in posts from Swedish Facebook groups. At the end of 2019, the coronavirus started to spread around the world and became a global pandemic. On social media, especially Facebook, disinformation started to spread around about the virus. The study was based on 58 posts from 4 different Facebook groups where a qualitative thematic analysis was conducted to see which themes that were common in the disinformation. This method was paired with framing theory to see how the senders were framing their message and the disinformation. The research questions of this study are which themes can be identified in the disinformation about the covid-19 vaccine in the Swedish Facebook groups? And how are the covid-19 vaccines framed in these themes? This study resulted in 4 themes with 9 subcategories. The first theme is conspiracy theories with the subcategory mRNA. The second theme is scientific resistance with the subcategories questioning the content of the vaccines, critical of the manufacturing and approval of the vaccines, effectiveness, critical of pharmaceutical companies and alternative cure. The third theme is criticism of senders, and the fourth theme is warnings with the subcategories exhortation, swine flu and side effects. In the theme conspiracy theories, the posts are framing vaccine as something dangerous, untrustworthy and that it is a fraud. The posts can also be connected to already existing theories about the virus. In the second theme, scientific resistance, are the posts framing resistance against scientific proven fact about the vaccines. The posts also frame that there are other solutions for covid-19 than the vaccine. In the third theme, criticism against senders, the common frames were that the senders of information about the vaccine and vaccination were smeared, for example the Swedish government and the public health authority. These senders were framed as traitors and that the Swedish population would become their slaves. In the last theme warnings, the posts framed warnings and tried to influence people to not take the vaccine because of several reasons like side effects. The posts also framed that these reasons could lead to death or other health issues for the rest of their lives.

Western liberal democracies currently face a significant challenge from the growing proliferation of disinformation. With research suggesting that disinformation increases the risk of violence and intergroup conflict, this thesis sought to understand precisely what is being done by states to decrease the likelihood of this happening—specifically, with how the United Kingdom compares with/differs from Sweden in the type of resilience strategies employed to combat disinformation. To answer this question, this thesis conducted a qualitative comparative content analysis to examine government communications for the purposes of identifying, codifying, and describing the different types of resilience strategies combatting disinformation as practised by the United Kingdom and Sweden, to serve as a repository aid in future intervention planning. Utilising a bespoke analytical framework to make sense of resilience strategies of differing scales, a micro-macro perspective was adopted to capture (1) bottom-up focused strategies—which sought to enhance an individual’s ability to independently evaluate the accuracy of the information that they consume and (2) top-down focused strategies—which sought to reduce societal disinformation exposure through structural interventions. This thesis demonstrates that the United Kingdom and Sweden share approximately two-thirds of their disinformation resilience strategy with one another. From 472 items sourced from British and Swedish government communications, this study uncovered 15 micro strategies and 59 macro strategies in total—which, at face value, suggests a genuine bias in favour of a macro strategic resilience approach. To the degree that this is suitable for effective societal resilience against disinformation, remains inconclusive and warrants further research.

The institutional, electoral and ethnic factors contributing to electoral violence have well been documented through both quantitative and qualitative research, while the mobilization process for electoral violence has been examined qualitatively. This study aims to contribute to quantitative research on factors that explain why citizens turn into perpetrators of electoral violence by examining how education can contribute to a decrease in electoral violence through the question: How does the level of education influence the occurrence of electoral violence? Given the presence of disinformation about elections during the electoral cycle, this research asserts that education contributes to a decrease in electoral violence by decreasing the acceptance of disinformation about elections. The hypothesis is tested through a large-N study on sub-national data of elections organized between 2004 and 2012 worldwide. The study’s results identify no support for the hypothesized association between education and election violence.

In recent years, disinformation circulating the internet and especially social media has become a widespread concern. The urgency of the fake news problem lies in the fact that decisions that are taken on false or misleading information risk impacting democratic processes negatively. This is especially true during a global health crisis when the misinformation in question concerns scientific facts and informs the way people act in society. Focusing on the relational aspect of fake news, new insight and hypothesis generation can be explored with a relatively novel method, social network analysis. This research provides with an example of the method applied to political problems by analysing the misinformation and fact-checking diffusion network on the Italian Twitterverse during the second wave of COVID19. The network shows a tight core of misinformation and a peripheral fact-checking region approximating a spanning tree. Although some levels of polarization are observed, the resulting network shows no evidence of echo chambers that hinder interaction between the misinformation and the fact-checking clusters. Actor-level analysis revealed that the majority of the users interacting in the network are humans and that influential and active users share misinformation only. The findings of this work are presented to show how network analysis can contribute both mitigation strategies in particular and to social and political sciences research in general.

This paper explores the visual content of the Russian Embassy in London in connection to the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury, UK on March 4, 2018. Considering the Skripal poisoning as a significant event in the relationship between the UK and Russia, that Russian disinformation increases substantially surrounding events perceived as key to security, and that the Russian Embassy in London is increasingly coming under investigation for controversial content, the aim of this paper is to deconstruct the tweets made by the Russian Embassy in London using the Skripal poisoning as a case study. This paper also situates this event within the broader context of Russian strategic narratives and disinformation. Tweets made by the Russian Embassy in London were collected between March 4th and Sept. 28th , 2018 and categorized visually into representations of actors, events, and message. Bleiker's (2015) visual content analysis framework was used, specifically through compositional, semiotic and discursive analyses. Through this deconstruction of visual conflict framing, it is hoped that a better understanding of the building blocks of Russian state disinformation can be ascertained within the UK domestic media environment.

The following thesis will set out to argue that misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracies, in tandem with today’s advanced communication technology, pose a dire threat to the future of public health, biotechnological advancement, safe medical procedures, and ethical evidence-based legislation and policy. Each chapter will explore different points in public health and medicine that misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracies have already begun to shift or disrupt in ways that are eroding safe and effective care. Misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories should be seen more broadly outside of the spheres of Big Tech and First Amendment discourse, and instead understood as a public health concern of which there are ways to inoculate, treat, and mitigate public spread. Much as we have come to understand that gun violence requires more than a judicial approach, so too must we come to understand misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories as an indicator of failing health in a population. / Urban Bioethics

This thesis addresses speech acts on the subject of disinformation as a threat at the United Nations Human Rights Council in its 47th, 49th and 50th sessions where the matter was discussed. By combining securitization theory and qualitative content analysis with a method of examining speech acts through specific variables, it is possible to examine if this was a case of securitization or politicization and if the process was a success or a failure. The findings suggest that there were two instances that could be regarded as securitizing acts. A part of the audience accepted disinformation as a threat. However, the lack of supranational power of the Council, failure to unilaterally depict disinformation as an existential security threat, lack of exceptional measures and disagreements between representatives caused obstacles for the process. Thus I argue that disinformation was not securitized but quasi-successfully politicized in the Human Rights Council and that the discussion revealed geopolitical tensions within the organization which can make decision-making difficult also in the future.