Research Seminar: Marian-Andrei Rizoiu

The Speaker

Marian-Andrei Rizoiu is an Associate Professor leading the Behavioral Data Science lab at the University of Technology Sydney. His interdisciplinary research crosses computer and social sciences, blending psycholinguistics, digital communication and stochastic modelling to understand human attention dynamics in the online environment, the emergence of influence and opinion polarization. Marian-Andrei is the recipient of the prestigious Excellence Award and Academic of the Year at the 2023 Australian Defence Industry Awards, and a finalist for the 2024 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia. He currently leads grants worth $1.8 million from the Commonwealth of Australia to detect and model the spread of mis- and disinformation and its weaponized counterparts – information and influence operations.

See here for more information.

Abstract

What if misinformation is not an information problem at all? This talk covers the main findings of a Home Affairs-funded project on the Australian misinformation environment. To understand the role of news publishers in potentially unintentionally propagating misinformation, we examine how far-right and fringe online groups share and leverage established legacy news media articles to advance their narratives. Our findings suggest that online fringe ideologies spread through the use of content that is consensus-based and “factually correct”. We found that Australian news publishers with both moderate and far-right political leanings contain comparable levels of information completeness and quality and that far-right Twitter users often share from moderate sources. However, a stark difference emerges when we consider two additional factors: 1) the narrow topic selection of articles by far-right users, suggesting that they cherry-pick only news articles that engage with their preexisting world-views and specific topics of concern, and 2) the difference between moderate and far-right publishers when we examine the writing style of their articles. We further find that misinformation is a "styled product" that producers package in specific styles and ship to consumers. This allows us to test Facebook interventions to understand what makes messaging reach the misinformation-consuming audience. Finally, we showcase our newly proposed misinformation consumption radicalisation pathway, built on top of ex-blue pill testimonials, which showcases how consumers of conspiracy theories can perform acts of violent extremism.

The Seminar

In this event in a series, speakers from within the Hub, the University, and the broader research community tell us about their research. Our Research Seminar Series involves speakers covering a broad range of themes surrounding our Hub’s interests, so we’ll hopefully all learn something interesting. Whether you want to learn to inform your own research or to simply satisfy a personal curiosity, we hope to see you there.

Watch the Replay

Watch the recording of this seminar on the CHDH Youtube Channel