Research Project - Alternative Media Ecosystems

This project is currently funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe scheme, via a Marie Curie award. “Considering Rurality and Religion: Mapping an Alternative Media Ecosystem and Addressing Gaps in Misinformation Research” has been awarded approximately $250,000 for two years.

At the core of this multi-year project are two intense periods of data collection, around the 2022 US midterm elections and the 2024 US presidential elections. The methods employed are mainly ethnographic, but include some network mapping and content analysis.

Given this project’s on-the-ground nature and focus in highly conservative communities, outcomes of this project are also oriented toward bettering this type of research. First steps included an inaugural preconference at the 2024 American Sociological Association entitled ‘On-The-Ground Research with the Right in 2024’.

Upcoming events, presenting initial findings on the journalistic roles and conflicted identities of rural talk radio stations:

• Harvard University’s Politics and Social Change Workshop (26 September 2024)
• Association of Internet Researchers Conference (1 November 2024)

Image from fieldwork conducted in November 2022, during the US midterm elections.