Many different projects have been launched in Europe to better recognise disinformation and reduce its harmful effects. These initiatives aim to increase people's ability to analyse, evaluate and create different types of media reports, and thus arm themselves against disinformation. Vermeulen and Droog aim to further investigate the effectiveness of these initiatives.
The grant contributes to a better overview of the scientific literature on the harmful effects of disinformation, and ways to counter these effects. This project can provide an overview of concrete actions European society (EU, governments, municipalities, media, NGOs, education, etc.) can take to combat disinformation.
"For us, this research fits perfectly into our existing line of research on ways to reduce the impact of disinformation on public opinion formation," said Ivar Vermeulen. Ellen Droog will conduct the research as a postdoc in 2023.
This project is funded by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF), which is sponsored by Google, the EU, and the philanthropic Gulbenkian Foundation. EMIF supports research projects to tackle disinformation in Europe, in order to promote a more resilient and evidence-based digital information ecosystem. The project is conducted with fellow scientists from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and Universität Wien.