CRC in Digital Misinformation, Polarization & Anti-Social Media

Dr. Jaigris Hodson will use a Canada Research Chair renewal for a research program aimed at investigating the intersection of digital misinformation, polarization & anti-social media.

This research examines misinformation, polarization, and online harassment, and how they compound each other, while also being exacerbated by social, structural and behavioral forces. Using a social determinants of health model, the concept of information syndemic is used to understand these phenomena – together called online anti-social behaviors (OASB) - in a systemic way. This research has 3 objectives: 1) To adopt an information syndemic approach to examine OASB, 2) Map the relationships between OASB’s and the structural forces that contribute to them, and 3) Launch and test different approaches, both technological and analog, to find solutions to these issues.