The (mis)informed citizen

Research project at the Alan Turing Institute

Active

London

Though concerns about the use of misinformation are certainly not new, the reach, speed and volume of misinformation in the digital era have generated a heightened sense of urgency among policymakers, scholars and the public alike. At the same time, relatively little is known about how such information is processed by people online – where much of it is encountered incidentally by citizens who are otherwise inattentive to public affairs – nor about its lasting effects on those who encounter it. This project therefore aims to develop a better understanding of the extent and impact of both quality and false, or misleading, information in online political news.