That was quite a ride, wasn’t it? Or, rather, this election is quite a ride, given that it’s still going on. The quadrennial media rituals — “too early to call,” a sudden awareness of the nation’s counties, Steve Kornacki — all returned for the 2020 presidential election. As of Wednesday […] Read more »
‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study
The desire to fight a “culture war” is the preserve of a small group on the political extremes that does not represent most British voters, according to a major new project on political polarisation in the UK. A disproportionate amount of political comment on social media is generated by small, […] Read more »
Do Elections Matter? Most Voters Think This One Will
Three weeks before Election Day, a large majority of voters expect the outcome of November’s election for president to have a significant impact on the future of the United States. Most Americans think the country is divided about its most important values, and few expect those divisions to lessen any […] Read more »
Mail-In Voter Fraud: Anatomy of a Disinformation Campaign
The claim that election fraud is a major concern with mail-in ballots has become the central threat to election participation during the Covid-19 pandemic and to the legitimacy of the outcome of the election across the political spectrum. President Trump has repeatedly cited his concerns over voter fraud associated with […] Read more »
Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump
Of the flood of misinformation, conspiracy theories and falsehoods seeding the internet on the coronavirus, one common thread stands out: President Trump. That is the conclusion of researchers at Cornell University who analyzed 38 million articles about the pandemic in English-language media around the world. Mentions of Mr. Trump made […] Read more »
Twitter has an ‘outsized role’ in politics — but just 29% get political news from it
Popular political Twitter accounts frequently use the refrain “Twitter is not real life,” and data from a recent CBS News poll backs that up with just 29% of respondents saying they use Twitter to follow the campaign. But as one communications professor put it, Twitter plays an “outsized role” in […] Read more »