Research

A climate for mis- and disinformation in Australia

A summary of climate-related online narratives in the lead up to Australia’s 2022 federal election and the rise of weather-related conspiracy theories in the years prior.

Imported narratives and new frontiers for election misinformation: Lessons from CrossCheck Australia: Election Watch

First Draft’s APAC team adopted a clear-eyed, pre-emptive approach to help counter harmful information in the lead-up to the 2022 Australian election.

Covid-19 Vaccine Research Reports

First Draft presents various studies around Covid-19 vaccine misinformation and disinformation that it has carried out over the last several years.

A Limiting Lens: How Vaccine Misinformation Has Influenced Hispanic Conversations Online

First Draft's latest research explores Covid-19 vaccine misinformation surrounding Hispanic communities on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Covid-19 vaccine misinformation and narratives surrounding Black communities on social media

A new report examines Covid-19 vaccine misinformation affecting Black communities on social media and offers recommendations to journalists, health experts and social media platforms.

How to improve our analysis of ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’

We explore new approaches to the complex phenomenon of online coordination.

Disinformation, stigma and Chinese diaspora: policy guidance for Australia

An examination of the social media landscape of the Chinese diaspora in Australia provides a useful case study for policymakers ahead of the next federal election.

Covid-19 vaccines: A leap of faith and the power of trust among Black and Hispanic communities

First Draft conducted a qualitative research study to understand the factors influencing Covid-19 vaccine uptake in Black and Hispanic/Latino communities in the US.

Disinformation exports: How foreign anti-vaccine narratives reached West African communities online

First Draft's latest research takes a look at how North American conspiracy theories and pro-Russian vaccine disinformation reached West African communities on social media

There are lots of ways to label AI content. But what are the risks?

The questions, tensions and dilemmas of labelling AI content.

From deepfakes to TikTok filters: How do you label AI content?

What does a future of AI content look like? The first in our two-part series on explaining the role of AI in manipulating online content, exploring emergent tactics.

Vaccine misinformation in Facebook comment sections: a case study

First Draft study offers insights into Facebook comment sections, where vaccine misinformation sometimes goes undetected.

The role of cable television news in amplifying Trump’s tweets about election integrity

First Draft's latest research takes a look at how cable news amplified Trump's messaging on Twitter

The Covid-19 and other vaccines: Where we’re failing to provide the right information

Our analysis of the most influential online vaccine conversations revealed an environment cluttered with a confusing patchwork of harmful narratives and data deficits.

Under the surface: Covid-19 vaccine narratives, misinformation and data deficits on social media

Research report: Competing vaccine narratives across English, Spanish and Francophone social media

Data deficits: why we need to monitor the demand and supply of information in real time

We introduce the concept of 'data deficits', and explain why we must monitor them, and how.

The psychology of misinformation

The psychology of misinformation — the mental shortcuts, confusions, and illusions that encourage us to believe things that aren’t true — can tell us a lot about how to prevent its harmful effects.

It matters how platforms label manipulated media. Here are 12 principles designers should follow

Manipulated photos and videos flood our social media platforms. With PAI, we provide guidance for labelling them.

When it comes to scientific information, WhatsApp users in Argentina are not fools

A new study suggests audiences in the country are often comfortable differentiating between factual and misleading information on the messaging platform.

Vaccine case study: Exploring the controversy around Dengvaxia and vaccine misinformation in the Philippines

Since the Dengvaxia controversy, the confidence in vaccines among Philippine parents plummeted from 82 percent in 2015 to only 21 percent in 2018.

Vaccine case study: Understanding the impact of polio vaccine disinformation in Pakistan

How false rumors and disinformation about the polio vaccine spread on Pakistani social media, heavily impacting polio eradication efforts on the ground.

New research shows the successful impact of newsroom collaboration on fighting misinformation

Comprova was launched in response to plummeting trust in the Brazilian media, which dropped by 17% between 2017 and 2018

What 100,000 WhatsApp messages reveal about misinformation in Brazil

In Brazil, the Comprova project's tipline amassed one of the largest known WhatsApp data sets around elections. Here's what we learned.

The Impact of CrossCheck on Journalists & the Audience

In-depth interviews and surveys found that the collaboration was credible, and taught verification skills

Information Disorder: An interdisciplinary framework

Our new report for the Council of Europe aims to bring structure to conversations about misleading and malicious information

Field Guide to “Fake News”

The guide looks at how digital methods, data, tools, techniques and research approaches can be utilised in the service of increasing public understanding of the politics, production, circulation and responses to fake news online.

Making Secondary Trauma a Primary Issue

An in-depth study into the impact of viewing traumatic eyewitness media on the mental health of staff working for news, human rights and humanitarian orgs

A Global Study of Eyewitness Media in Online Newspaper Sites

An in-depth analysis of how much eyewitness media was used by eight major newspaper websites over a three week period