Quality of Political Discourse

Quality of Political Discourse

A central research area relates to different factors, such as expert knowledge, disinformation, and toxic political talk, influencing the quality of political discourse. Specifically, we are interested in how expert knowledge influences political discourses and policy agendas. In the context of disinformation, we study how the concept of “fake news” is weaponized to discredit news media (content). Furthermore, we investigate the consequences of sophisticated visual disinformation such as deepfakes. Finally, we are interested in public perceptions and effects of “toxic” political talk and (automated) content moderation as a measure against it. 

Participating Researchers

Vera Axyonova

Jana Laura Egelhofer

Anna Maria Planitzer

Andrea Stockinger

Teresa Weikmann

Recent Research

• Jaidka, K., Zhou, A., Lelkes, Y., Egelhofer, J. L., & Lecheler, S. (2022). Beyond Anonymity: Network Affordances, Under Deindividuation, Improve Social Media Discussion Quality. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 27(1).
• Axyonova, V. (2021, August). Expert Knowledge in Times of Crisis – Uncovering Interaction Effects between Think Tanks, Media and Politics beyond Liberal Democracies. Presentation at the ECPR General Conference 2021.
• Egelhofer, J. L., Aaldering, L., & Lecheler, S. (2021). Delegitimizing the Media? Mapping Politicians’ Media Criticism on Social Media. Journal of Language and Politics.
• Egelhofer, J. L., Aaldering, L., Eberl, J. M., Galyga, S., & Lecheler, S. (2020). From Novelty to Normalization? How Journalists Use the Term “Fake News” in their Reporting. Journalism Studies, 21(10), 1323-1343.