Political parties are spreading less disinformation online than at any point since 2020, a Victoria University researcher says, though young voters are unimpressed by parties trying to imitate youth culture.
Victoria University internet, social media and politics research lab director Mona Krewel told Q+A that the New Zealand Social Media Study, which tracks party and party leader Facebook pages, had recorded its lowest level of disinformation yet.
“We are running the study since 2020, inside election times and outside of election times, and we never had less disinformation,” she said.
The study found around 17 “half-truths” - posts built mostly on accurate facts but containing one dodgy detail - and one fake-news post.
Krewel put the drop down to populist fringe parties, which she said had been behind much of the issue in previous elections around Covid and vaccine mandates.
“I would say it’s an election about the economy, which is not a topic of the populist parties, and that’s why they are staying pretty quiet," the researcher said.
"Given that it's mostly just the established parties who are running the show in this election around the economy, we naturally find less disinformation."
But the researcher warned that fewer posts did not necessarily mean less harm, because posts with disinformation tended to attract more shares, comments and reactions.
“Low prevalence doesn’t mean low impact,” she said.
“We are talking about Facebook pages that have a huge reach, so if they have one fake-news post, this could reach a very large audience.”
‘Inauthentic’
Krewel said young voters were finding a lot of what parties posted on social media “cringe”, particularly when parties copied youth culture.
“They think they get the young age brackets by going on TikTok, doing a ‘get ready with me’ in the campaign or posting some memes. This actually doesn’t resonate very well with the young people,” she said.
“They think it’s inauthentic if they imitate a youth culture. They would rather see them delivering, really, on the topics that they care about.”
The study found National was currently posting the most, followed by Labour and NZ Outdoors and Freedom, according to Krewel.
For the full interview, watch the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
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