Folk theories of info-democratic disorders in Belgium and Luxembourg: preliminary results from an ongoing qualitative audience study

Wiard, Victor;Patriarche, Geoffroy;Dufrasne, Marie;Rasquinet, Olivier
(2022) Insights on the impact of disinformation from multiple perspectives — Location: Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles, Bruxelles (28.October.2022)

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This presentation provides the preliminary results of an ongoing research project that aims to study the folk theories of info-democratic disorders in Belgium and Luxembourg, relying on a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews with 30 informants in Belgium and Luxembourg. The first part of the presentation outlines the theoretical framework and the methodological design that allowed us to analyse, from a qualitative “audience studies” perspective, how people diversely theorise the nexus between information disorders and democratic disorders, i.e. “info-democratic disorders”. The second part of the presentation focuses on the 10 folk theories we identified so far, based on the 10 interviews already conducted. We labelled these folk theories as follows: (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.
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Wiard, V., Patriarche, G., Dufrasne, M., & Rasquinet, O. (2022). Folk theories of info-democratic disorders in Belgium and Luxembourg: preliminary results from an ongoing qualitative audience study. Insights on the impact of disinformation from multiple perspectives, Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles, Bruxelles. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/243015