Are Newspapers’ Online Discussion Boards Democratic Tools or Conspiracy Theories’ Engines? A Case Study on an Eastern European “Media War”

Abstract

This article analyzes quantitatively and qualitatively 1,583 comments by national newspapers’ online readers in Bulgaria. It investigates readers’ reactions to articles discussing the media war between the biggest press groups—one owned by a Member of Parliament known as “the Murdoch of the East.” The study explores how these stories influence the relationship between newspapers and their readers, and whether they enhance the democratic potential of online discussion. The results show a higher level of reader engagement than in established democracies or nondemocracies. The online space provides an arena for democratic conversations and it is also used as an engine for conspiracy theories.

Political Information Use and Its Relationship to Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories Among the German Public

“…Scholars agree that the widespread use of specific internet applications or websites has accelerated the prevalence and audience reach of conspiracy theories (Douglas et al, 2019; Lewandowsky et al, 2017). Research demonstrates a higher prevalence of conspiratorial ideas in nontraditional and nonjournalistic media, such as blogs or fringe news websites (Benkler et al, 2018), comment sections (Slavtcheva-Petkova, 2016), or social media (Del Vicario et al, 2016). News diffusion studies also show how partisan or mainstream media pick up news including conspiracy theories originating from communicative niches online and disseminate them more widely (Benkler et al, 2018).…”

“We Are Not Fools”

“…This is the main theoretical premise this article is built on—though not a fully fledged investigation of the deliberative democratic potential of online comments (conducted as part of the wider study—see Slavtcheva-Petkova 2015), it will offer a useful account of virtual discussions about journalism. As Dahlgren (2005: 160) puts it,while it is important to keep a clear perspective and not exaggerate the extent of the activities or their impact, it would also be foolish to underestimate what seems to be a major development in the contemporary history of Western democracy.…”

An exploration of coronavirus-related online antisemitism in Hungary using quantitative topic model and qualitative discourse analysis

“…Our research examined a large text corpus of Hungarian-language online articles and comments/posts to scrutinize coronavirus-related antisemitism. It is well known that the internet is of paramount importance in disseminating conspiracy theories (Vicario et al, 2016;Slavtcheva-Petkova, 2016;Klein et al, 2018). This fact justifies an examination of online sources with regard to their prevalence and content.…”