Summarised by Centrist
An analysis of over 4,000 Facebook posts from New Zealand’s political parties and leaders for the 2023 election reveals the impact of fake news and misinformation on social media and political discourse,
Conducted by Mona Krewel as part of the New Zealand Social Media Study, the research looks at the dynamics of disinformation and half-truths. There appears to be a subtle rise in misleading content, particularly ‘small lies’ and emotional, simplistic messaging in political posts.
The study suggests the occurrence of outright fake news remained relatively stable in 2023 (under 3% of posts examined), compared to the 2020 elections. There was an increase in “half-truths”, which often involved cherry-picked information or pseudo-experts.
