EDMO Online Training on The Economics of Disinformation: trends, mechanisms and actors
Online
The business models of online platforms, mainly based on advertisement, favor the circulation of, among others, dis-mis/information. The more content gets viral, the more it can be monetized. This can be similarly applied to websites. Furthermore, strong disinformation campaigns (especially when state-backed) are implemented thanks to substantial economic investments.
In parallel, the business models of traditional media have had to face a drastic change, both because of the reduced willingness to pay by readers and because of the need to continue attracting funds from advertisers (with evident consequences such as click-baiting and speed, alias the race to be the first publishing the news). All this happens in what is called the attention economy, where content supply is high and immediate and where demand is limited by the attention it gives to such offer.
This training aims at providing awareness of the different economic flows that surround disinformation, as an additional knowledge needed to understand and counter disinformation.
