The Threats and Potentials of a Changing Political Information Environment – THREATPIE

THREATPIE employed numerous methods in order to describe the above-mentioned concerns. The study builds upon a representative online survey including more than 26,000 respondents in eighteen democracies, covering as additional ad hoc study the first period of Russian war on Ukraine. It gathered traced data from the social media profiles of more than 150 alternative media outlets during a period of three years. It employed survey-embedded experiments in several European countries. Additionally, it ran a web-tracking survey (non-representative sample) in five countries. Finally, it included focus groups in several countries in order to better understand the concerns from different perspectives, those of journalists, educators, and citizens.
The countries employed in the studies vary on a number of key contextual factors, covering both “young” and established democracies with different democratic traditions, media systems, and news consumption habits.

The project’s main results concentre around the three main issues within Political Information Environment: selective exposure, news avoidance and disinformation. We find that citizens in general showed moderate levels of using only news in line with their political views and discussing topics only with individuals who shared their views. Selective exposure was recognized as a moderate threat to democratic societies. Up to 20% of individuals in the countries examined can be classified as these “intentional consistent news avoidance”. The prevalence of disinformation varied among countries and is perceived as a significant threat to democracy.

The project has attained its objectives and, in some instances, exceeded expectations (e.g. two publications covering the disinformation during the war in Ukraine). However, it also left important questions for future scientific inquiry, for example on the nuances of political and country differences. Comparative work is an important challenge for researchers and should be exploited more for the benefit of depicting the similarities and differences within the European Political Information Environment. Another challenge lies within the theoretical foundations. THREATPIE was grounded in the theoretical approaches of news avoidance and selective exposure, while numerous studies indicate that their impact on modern society is limited, these constructs are still important factors in explaining rising polarisation and democratic backslash.

The outcomes of the project are numerous. Four academic papers are published in the top-tier journals (others are in the production). A website where the results, papers and other materials are available. The outcomes of the project were presented at numerous international conferences, including the ICA and IPSA. In total 38 presentations were delivered during almost twenty conferences and workshops. We have also produced three policy papers and one public report covering the results of the traced data.

This project examines how the current changes in the political information environments in European democracies affect the conditions for a healthy democracy. As a theoretical background we employ the concept of ‘political information environment’ (PIE) that includes both the supply and demand of political news and information. Supply refers to the quantity and quality of news and public affairs content provided through traditional and new media sources, demand captures the amount and type of news and information the public wants or consumes. Recent changes in the political information environment may lead to a growing number of uniformed, misinformed and selectively informed citizens, potentially endangering the functioning of democracy. To examine these concerns, the study aims at investigating the following: (1) how do citizens today gain political information and how does this relate to their political attitudes and behaviour; (2) what is the content and quality of the information citizens are exposed to; (3) where do divides between being informed and not being informed exist, across and within European societies, and (4) how can citizens be empowered to navigate and find valuable information. We will do this through a series of comparative, innovatively designed studies, including web tracking, comparative surveys, focus groups and survey-embedded experiments in 14 European countries and the US. These countries vary on a number of key contextual factors relevant for the study, covering both “young” and established democracies with different democratic traditions, media systems, and news consumption habits.