International Journal of Communication
Publishes a Special Section on
Comparative Approaches to Mis/Disinformation

Guest-edited by Hyunjin Seo and Robert Faris, this Special Section on Comparative Approaches to Mis/Disinformation addresses how a deluge of mis/disinformation is affecting communications around the world, from misleading news stories around the 2018 Brazil elections to a lynching fueled by false social media messages in India in 2019. The situation is particularly concerning in emerging democracies, where availability and affordability of digital communication technologies has facilitated the production and distribution of false and misleading digital content among populations with lower levels of media and digital literacy. At the same time, we are witnessing false narratives spreading across countries and platforms often orchestrated by networks of operatives coordinating attacks internationally.  

While there are an increasing number of academic papers on the topic of mis/disinformation, insufficient attention has been paid to the examination of mis/disinformation from comparative and international perspectives. This Special Section on Comparative Approaches to Mis/Disinformation features conceptual and data-informed papers with international and global perspectives on the prevalence, impact, and diffusion of mis/disinformation in different countries.  

Papers selected for the Special Section provide new theoretical and empirical contributions to existing bodies of knowledge, whether focusing on one country or offering comparative perspectives involving multiple countries. The papers, individually and collectively, offer important scholarly and policy implications for studying and combating mis/disinformation around the world.  

We invite you to read these articles published in the International Journal of Communication on February 16, 2021. Please Ctrl+Click on the article titles below for direct linking to the papers of interest. We look forward to your feedback!

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Special Section on Comparative Approaches to Mis/Disinformation — Introduction 
Hyunjin Seo, Robert Faris

Electronic Armies or Cyber Knights? The Sources of Pro-Authoritarian Discourse on
Middle East Twitter
Alexi Abrahams, Andrew Leber

Motivations for Sharing Misinformation: A Comparative Study in Six Sub-Saharan African Countries 
Dani Madrid-Morales, Herman Wasserman, Gregory Gondwe, Khulekani Ndlovu, Etse Sikanku, Melissa Tully, Emeka Umejei, Chikezie Uzuegbunam

When Machine Behavior Targets Future Voters: The Use of Social Bots to Test Narratives for Political Campaigns in Brazil
Rose Marie Santini, Débora Salles, Giulia Tucci

Fighting Zika with Honey: An Analysis of YouTube’s Video Recommendations on Brazilian YouTube
Jonas Kaiser, Adrian Rauchfleisch, Yasodara Córdova

Belief in or Identification of False News According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model  
Chi-Ying Chen, Mike Kearney, Shao-Liang Chang

Selective Belief: How Partisanship Drives Belief in Misinformation
Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Burhanuddin Muhtadi

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 Larry Gross, Editor
Arlene Luck, Founding Managing Editor  
Kady Bell-Garcia, Managing Editor
Kasia Anderson, Managing Editor, Special Sections
Hyunjin Seo and Robert Faris, Guest Editors

According to the latest statistics from Google Scholar, IJoC ranks 3rd among all Humanities, Literature & Arts journals, and 5th among all Communication journals.