ONGOING
The Everyday Misinformation Project
There is growing concern that private platforms such as WhatsApp are playing a major role in the spread of misinformation around the world. This Leverhulme-funded project develops and applies a new theoretical and methodological framework combining in-depth longitudinal qualitative fieldwork in three English regions and nationally representative panel surveys of the UK population. The project was conceived in May 2019 and funded by Leverhulme in March 2020. Fieldwork, delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, began March 2021. The project runs for three years and provides for two postdocs.
Some things from this project so far:
Chadwick, A., Hall, N-A., & Vaccari, C. (2023). Misinformation Rules!? Could “Group Rules” Reduce Misinformation in Online Personal Messaging? New Media & Society.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., & Hall, N-A. (2023). What Explains the Spread of Misinformation in Online Personal Messaging Networks? Exploring the Role of Conflict Avoidance. Digital Journalism.
— Download pdf.
Hall, N-A., Lawson, B. T., Vaccari, C., & Chadwick, A. (2023). Beyond Quick Fixes: How Users Make Sense of Misinformation Warnings on Personal Messaging. Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University. June. 40pp.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C. and Hall, N. (2022). Covid Vaccines and Online Personal Messaging: The Challenge of Challenging Everyday Misinformation. Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University. April. 34pp.
— Download pdf.Visit the project website.
The New Crisis of Public Communication: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research on Digital Media and Politics.
This project, which began in 2017 and has involved several collaborators, seeks to explain the long-term impact of digital media on the political norms and civic cultures of liberal democracies. A major focus is on the factors that shape the sharing and correction of misinformation and disinformation on social media. The project also incorporates the establishment of a new centre at Loughborough University, the Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C), funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation for a postdoctoral position at Loughborough (Dr Johannes Kaiser), and a significant grant from the Leverhulme Trust (see above).
Some things from this project so far:
Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C. and Kaiser, J. (2022). The Amplification of Exaggerated and False News on Social Media: The Roles of Platform Use, Motivations, Affect, and Ideology. American Behavioral Scientist, pp. 1–18.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A. (2022). Breaking Democracy: Lies, Deception and Disinformation. Gresham College Lecture, Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, London. May 5.
— Watch video and download accompanying article and slides at Gresham’s website.Ross, A., Vaccari, C., & Chadwick, A. (2022). Russian Meddling in U.S. Elections: How News of Disinformation’s Impact Can Affect Trust in Electoral Outcomes and Satisfaction with Democracy. Mass Communication and Society, 45(6), 786–811.
— Download pdf.Kaiser, J., Vaccari, C. and Chadwick, A. (2022). Partisan Blocking: Biased Responses to Shared Misinformation Contribute to Network Polarization on Social Media. Journal of Communication.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A. and Stanyer, J. (2022). Deception as a Bridging Concept in the Study of Disinformation, Misinformation, and Misperceptions: Toward a Holistic Framework. Communication Theory, 32(1), 1-24.
— Awarded the Honourable Mention for the International Communication Association’s Kaid-Sanders Award for the Best Article in the field of political communication.
— Download pdf.Ross, A., Chadwick, A. and Vaccari, C. (2021). Digital Media and the Proliferation of Public Opinion Cues Online: Biases and Vulnerabilities in the New Attention Economy. in Morrison, J., Birks, J. and Berry, M. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Political Journalism (Routledge), pp. 241-251.
— Download pdf.Baker, C. R. and Chadwick, A. (2021). Corrupted Infrastructures of Meaning: Post-truth Identities Online. in Tumber, H. and Waisbord, S. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism (Routledge), pp. 312-323.
— Download pdf.Chadwick, A. (2020). Four Challenges for the Future of Digital Politics Research in Dutton, W. H. (ed) A Research Agenda for Digital Politics (Edward Elgar), pp. 2–11
— See webpage.Chadwick, A. (2020). Toward a Richer Understanding of the Problem of Indeterminacy in Digital Culture. Keynote. Communication Sciences Doctoral Winter School, Universidade Nova de Lisbon, February 7.
—Video available here.Vaccari, C. and Chadwick, A. (2020). Deepfakes and Disinformation: Exploring the Impact of Synthetic Political Video on Deception, Uncertainty, and Trust in News. Social Media + Society, January-March, pp. 1–13.
Russell, A. (2020). Coming to Terms With Dysfunctional Hybridity: A Conversation with Andrew Chadwick on the Challenges to Liberal Democracy in the Second-wave Networked era. Studies in Communication Sciences 20 (1), pp. 1–15.
Chadwick, A. (2019). The New Crisis of Public Communication: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research on Digital Media and Politics. Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University, December 12, 2019. 22pp.
Chadwick, A. and Vaccari, C. (2019) News Sharing on UK Social Media: Misinformation, Disinformation & Correction. Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University. 32pp.
Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C. and O'Loughlin, B. (2018) ‘Do Tabloids Poison the Well of Social Media? Explaining Democratically Dysfunctional News Sharing' New Media & Society. 20 (11): 4255–4274
Chadwick, A. (2018) “Thinking About the Role of Social Media in the Formation of Public Opinion.” “Big Questions in Political Communication Research” Panel, International Communication Association Annual Conference, Prague, May 24–28. — Video available here.
Oxford Coronavirus Attitudes, Explanations, and Narratives (OCEANS) Project
From the summer of 2020, I was part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers examining Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK. We published a study in Psychological Medicine on December, 2020. More here. A further article, led by me, examining the role of online social endorsement and media diet in vaccine hesitancy published in Social Media and Society in March 2021. You can read an article about the study on Medium here and download the article free of charge at the journal website here. A further study, using a randomized controlled trial testing the impact of ten different information conditions on vaccine hesitancy, was published in The Lancet Public Health on May 13, 2021. Details here. I published a piece in The Conversation in June 2021.
Some things from this project:
Freeman, D., Loe, B. S., Yu, L-M., Freeman, J., Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., Shanyinde, M., Harris, V., Waite, F., Rosebrock, L., Petit, A., Vanderslott, S., Lewandowsky, S., Larkin, M., Innocenti, S., Pollard, A. J., McShane, H., & Lambe, S. (2021). Effects of Different Types of Written Vaccination Information on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK (OCEANS-III): A Single-blind, Parallel-group, Randomised Controlled Trial. The Lancet Public Health, 6(6), pp. 416-427.
— Download pdf.
Chadwick, A., Kaiser, J., Vaccari, C., Freeman, D., Lambe, S., Loe, B. S., Vanderslott, S., Lewandowsky, S., Conroy, M., Ross, A. R. N., Innocenti, S., Pollard, A. J., Waite, F., Larkin, M., Rosebrock, L., Jenner, L., McShane, H., Giubilini, A., Petit, A., & Yu, Ly-Mee (2021). Online Social Endorsement and Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK. Social Media + Society, April 2, pp. 1–17.
— Download pdf.
Freeman, D., Loe, B. S., Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., Waite, F., Rosebrock, L., Jenner, L., Petit, A., Lewandowsky, S., Vanderslott, S., Innocenti, S., Larkin, M., Giubilini, A., Yu, L-M, McShane, H., Pollard, A.J., & Lambe, S. (2020). COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK: The Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes, and Narratives Survey (OCEANS) II. Psychological Medicine. pp. 1–15. December 11.
— Download pdf.
The Hybrid Media System Project
This project began in 2011 and has so far resulted in a book: Chadwick, A. (2013) The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power (Oxford University Press; Second Edition, 2017) and several articles. The book was awarded the Best Book Award of the American Political Science Association Information Technology and Politics Section (2014) and the International Journal of Press/Politics Best Book Award (2016). The second edition published in 2017. In addition to a new preface, it features an extensive new chapter applying the conceptual framework to the extraordinary 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and the rise of Donald Trump.
Some things from this project:
Chadwick, A., Kaiser, J., Vaccari, C., Freeman, D., Lambe, S., Loe, B. S., Vanderslott, S., Lewandowsky, S., Conroy, M., Ross, A. R. N., Innocenti, S., Pollard, A. J., Waite, F., Larkin, M., Rosebrock, L., Jenner, L., McShane, H., Giubilini, A., Petit, A., & Yu, Ly-Mee (2021). ‘Online Social Endorsement and Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK.’ Social Media + Society, April 2, pp. 1–17.
— Download pdf.Ross, A., Chadwick, A. and Vaccari, C. (2021). ‘Digital Media and the Proliferation of Public Opinion Cues Online: Biases and Vulnerabilities in the New Attention Economy.’ in Morrison, J., Birks, J. and Berry, D. M. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Political Journalism (Routledge).
— Download pdf.Baker, C. R. and Chadwick, A. (2021). ‘Corrupted Infrastructures of Meaning: Post-truth Identities Online.’ in Tumber, H. and Waisbord, S. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism (Routledge), pp. 312–323.
— Download pdf.Watts, E. and Chadwick, A. (2020). ‘“With and Between You All”: Celebrity Status, User-Audience Networks, and Representative Claims in Emma Watson’s Feminist Politics’ in Lind, R. A. (ed) Produsing Theory in a Digital World 3.0: The Intersection of Audiences and Production in Contemporary Theory. (Peter Lang).
— Download pdf.
— See blog post.Russell, A. (2020). Coming to Terms With Dysfunctional Hybridity: A Conversation with Andrew Chadwick on the Challenges to Liberal Democracy in the Second-wave Networked era. Studies in Communication Sciences 20 (1), pp. 1–15.
Chadwick, A., O'Loughlin, B. and Vaccari, C. (2017) ‘Why People Dual Screen Political Debates and Why It Matters for Democratic Engagement’ Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 61.
Chadwick, A. and Dennis, J. (2017) ‘Social Media, Professional Media, and Mobilization in Contemporary Britain: Explaining the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Citizens’ Movement 38 Degrees’ Political Studies 65 (1), pp. 42–60.
Chadwick, A., Dennis, J., and Smith, A. P. (2016) ‘Politics in the Age of Hybrid Media: Power, Systems, and Media Logics’ in Bruns, A., Enli, G., Skogerbø, E., Larsson, A. O. and Christensen, C. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics (Routledge), pp. 7–22.
Chadwick, A. (2015) ‘The “Social Media” Maneuver’ Social Media and Society1 (1), pp. 1-2.
Vaccari, C. Chadwick, A. and O'Loughlin, B. (2015) ‘Dual-Screening the Political: Media Events, Social Media, and Citizen Engagement’ Journal of Communication 65 (6), pp. 1041–1061.
Chadwick, A. and Collister, S. (2014) ‘Boundary-Drawing Power and the Renewal of Professional News Organizations: The Case of the Guardian and the Edward Snowden NSA Leak’ International Journal of Communication 8.
Chadwick, A. (2014) ‘From “Building the Actions” to “Being in the Moment”: Older and Newer Media Logics in Political Advocacy’ The Nonprofit Quarterly21 (1), pp. 54-61.
Chadwick, A. (2011) ‘The Political Information Cycle in a Hybrid News System: the British Prime Minister and the “Bullygate” Affair’ The International Journal of Press/Politics 16 (1), pp. 3-29.
Chadwick, A. (2011) ‘Britain’s First Live Televised Party Leaders’ Debate: From the News Cycle to the Political Information Cycle’ Parliamentary Affairs 64 (1), pp. 24-44.
Chadwick, A. and Stanyer, J. (2011) ‘The Changing News Media Environment’ in Heffernan, R., Cowley, P. and Hay, C. (eds) Developments in British Politics 9 (Palgrave-Macmillan), pp. 215-237.
Chadwick, A. (2011) ‘The Hybrid Media System’ Presentation to the European Consortium for Political Research General Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, August 25–27.
Oxford Studies in Digital Politics
Digital communication technologies are now central to our understanding of political, social, economic, and cultural life. This book series brings together scholars with an interest in understanding the information and communication environments which shape, and are shaped by, politics. The series is concerned with theoretical and conceptual debates, institutions, behaviour, and policy issues. It provides an important, high-profile publishing outlet for a range of talented authors, both established and up-and-coming.
Books in the series analyze the politics of new communication technologies, broadly defined. They may summarize and criticize existing literature as well as provide new departures.
The series is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, drawing upon perspectives in media and communication, political science, international relations, sociology, science and technology studies, policy sciences, law, public administration, cultural studies, economics, management, information science, and human geography.
Series books have been recognised with multiple distinguished international book awards.
Click here for a current snapshot of the series, including published and forthcoming titles.
For further details and information on how to submit a proposal, please visit the OUP Studies in Digital Politics webpages.
SELECTED COMPLETED PROJECTS
Primary Definers Now: Media and Think Tank Authority (2016–18)
Despite the recent growth of research on social media and politics, we know almost nothing about the online behavior of some of the most influential political organizations in the advanced democracies: think tanks. This multi-method, two-phase project is supported by a grant to me from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust scheme.
The first phase of the project used a case study of the role of the Institute for Fiscal Studies during the 2015 UK general election to explore how think tank authority and power on social media are constructed through the propagation, through various platform affordances, of specific communicative resources on Twitter. Contrary to accounts which suggest that social media are always spaces of chaos, flux, and emergent interpretive action, this work seeks to reveal the conditions under which some organizations are able to extend their reach into this potentially unruly space and become new types of what, during the broadcast era’s heyday, media sociologist Stuart Hall termed “primary definers.”
The second phase of the project examines the role of broadcast media in constructing the authority of the IFS during the 2015 general election.
Published research associated with this project:
Chadwick, A., McDowell-Naylor, D., Smith, A. P. and Watts, E. (2020) ‘Authority Signaling: How Relational Interactions between Journalists and Politicians Create Primary Definers in U.K. Broadcast News' Journalism. DOI: 10.1177/1464884918762848
Anstead, N. and Chadwick, A. (2018) ‘A Primary Definer Online: The Construction and Propagation of a Think Tank’s Authority on Social Media’ Media, Culture & Society 40 (2), pp. 246–266.
Digital Media, Power, and Democracy in Parties and Election Campaigns (2015–16)
In 2016, with Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Director for the Center for Computational and Data Sciences at Syracuse University, I co-edited a seven-article special issue of the International Journal of Press/Politics on digital media, power, and democracy in parties and election campaigns. This grew out of a 40-participant international workshop we organized in Washington DC in 2015.
The Handbook of Internet Politics (2007–09)
Consisting of over 30 specially commissioned chapters featuring over 50 authors, this major field-building project was co-edited by Philip N. Howard, Professor of Internet Studies, Oxford Internet Institute. Published by Routledge, it is divided into four sections: Institutions, Behavior, Identities, and Law and Policy, the Handbook is:
A prestigious reference work providing a thematically organized overview of the whole subject area of Internet politics and policy, broadly defined.
A survey of the state of the art including emerging and cutting edge areas.
A synthesis of important work and a means of punctuating the development of a scholarly field.
A means of providing linkages to established theories of media and politics, political communication, governance, deliberative democracy and social movements.
Made up of a strong cast of international scholars; a mix of big names, rising stars and more junior academics drawn from the US, the UK, Europe and beyond.
Chadwick, A. and Howard, P. N. (eds) (2009) The Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics (Routledge, New York and London). 512pp.
International Working Group on Online Consultation and Public Policymaking (2007-2009)
The NSF-funded International Working Group on Online Consultation and Public Policy Making (IWG) was a three-year (2007-2009) research effort focusing on (a) how to evaluate the policy and other social impacts of online citizen consultation initiatives aimed at influencing actual government decision making, and (b) how the optimal design of such initiatives is affected by cultural, social, legal, and institutional contexts. Its sub-groups considered the impacts of online consultations on government agencies and policy makers, the impacts of online consultations on public participants and civil society organizations, the relationship between the design of consultation and the kinds of impacts identified, and the ways in which legal, political and institutional context shape prospects for success. US participation in four international working groups was supported by $280,000, through a grant of $1,000,000 to the Center for Technology in Government at the State University of New York at Albany, from the National Science Foundation’s Digital Research Program (PI, Sharon Dawes, SUNY-Albany).
The project’s outputs included a series of four conferences (at Harvard University, Ohio State University, the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC, and at Sciences Po, Paris), a special issue of the journal I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, and an extensive edited volume published by MIT Press, Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication. I contributed articles to the I/S special issue and the edited volume.
