ABSTRACT
Scholarly literature on misinformation has insufficiently captured the experience of the majority of the world's population: those in the Global South. Findings from this literature are concentrated in Western contexts, and when they do extend to the Global South, they do not always rely on strategies that are mindful of the socioeconomic contexts in these countries. In this essay, we first describe key factors that make Global South contexts distinctive with regards to misinformation and how these contextual differences create challenges for combating and for researching misinformation. Next, we highlight existing scholarship based in Global South contexts that has responded to some of these challenges with innovative approaches. Finally, we provide recommendations on the direction that misinformation research on the Global South should take.
Subject(s)
Communication , Humans , DisinformationABSTRACT
Voters may be unable to hold politicians to account if they lack basic information about their representatives' performance. Civil society groups and international donors therefore advocate using voter information campaigns to improve democratic accountability. Yet, are these campaigns effective? Limited replication, measurement heterogeneity, and publication biases may undermine the reliability of published research. We implemented a new approach to cumulative learning, coordinating the design of seven randomized controlled trials to be fielded in six countries by independent research teams. Uncommon for multisite trials in the social sciences, we jointly preregistered a meta-analysis of results in advance of seeing the data. We find no evidence overall that typical, nonpartisan voter information campaigns shape voter behavior, although exploratory and subgroup analyses suggest conditions under which informational campaigns could be more effective. Such null estimated effects are too seldom published, yet they can be critical for scientific progress and cumulative, policy-relevant learning.
