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This report presents the preliminary results of an ongoing research project that focuses on the folk theories of info-democratic disorders in Belgium and Luxembourg. This project is part of the EDMO BELUX hub, which aims to reinforce the monitoring of and the research on disinformation in Belgium and Luxembourg. Within the research component of EDMO BELUX, this specific project aims more specifically at contributing to the assessment of the impact of disinformation on society and democratic processes. To do so, it focuses on how audiences theorise info democratic disorders, and relies on a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews with 30 informants in Belgium and Luxembourg. This report presents extensively the theoretical framework and the methodological design. It also provides an analysis of the 10 interviews already conducted. The “folk theory” approach has already been used to some extent in journalism studies and social media studies. In this project, we have built on this research to develop a conceptual and methodological framework that has proved to be valuable in allowing us to analyse, from a qualitative perspective, how people diversely theorise the nexus between information disorders and democratic disorders, i.e. "info-democratic disorders". So far our study has identified 10 folk theories through which people make sense of info-democratic disorders, which we labelled as: (1) Legacy media do the job, errors are human; (2) Democracy deserves better than poor journalism: (2.1) “Fast clicks”, (2.2) Sensationalism, and (2.3) There’s no contradiction; (3) Politics is not sexy; (4) “Fake profiles” disturb the public debate; (5) Follow the money: (5.1) News serves the business of big media companies, and (5.2) News is part of a conspiracy led by “higher economic interests” and involving politicians; (6) What’s true or not is only a matter of one’s viewpoint; and (7) Everything is suspect on social media. Other folk theories may emerge in the next phase of the research.
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Wiard, V., Patriarche, G., Dufrasne, M., & Rasquinet, O. (2022). Folk theories of info-democratic disorders: preliminary results from an ongoing qualitative audience study in Belgium and Luxembourg. EDMO BELUX. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/243010