Fake news, propaganda and media use of the youth in the Visegrad 4 and the Balkans

Political Capital and seven other partners conducted research on fake news, disinformation, online propaganda and the youth’s perception of and habits concerning online media. The report provides qualitative insights based on focus group discussions in eight countries in Central Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Overall, the study found that youngsters in the focus groups primarily use social media and online sources to read the news. Since they are aware of the existence of fake news, many of them take action to defend themselves against propaganda (e.g.: fact-checking and verification of sources). However, focus group discussions unequivocally back the assumption that the general distrust in media leads to them abstaining from the public discourse and a general passivity towards public matters.

The complete study is available from here (pdf, 2.881 MB).