Atelier organisé dans le cadre du Programme de la Spécialisation en analyse des discours et de la communication publics et du séminaire de Master "Communiquer en contexte de crise", Section de Français.
As highlighted in recent studies, the circulation of mis/disinformation is more pronounced and has a greater impact in fragile environments. The spread of mis/disinformation is not simply the product of external manipulation but circulate at the grassroots level because they fill a gap of reliable information. This is particularly true in contexts of acute insecurity such as the sub-Saharan Africa. While misinformation in the Global North often grows out of the confusion resulting from too much information, in sub-Saharan Africa it more often grows out of an information vacuum. Especially in conflict-affected areas, many people have little access to news media. At the same time, it is all the more important for people in these areas to obtain information e.g. about security threats and humanitarian assistance. As a result, many turn to untrustworthy sources. In the eastern DRC, for example, one study found that people continued listening to radio stations even when they did not trust them because they were looking for “orientation in the context of uncertainty related to the conflict.” With growing access to mobile digital technologies and social media contents, those populations are also increasingly exposed to unreliable and polarising contents that are pushed by partisan actors and social media algorithms designed to capture attention. As a result, the more reliable, complex and balanced media productions often lack visibility on social media. Therefore, an AI tool allowing Fondation Hirondelle’s local journalists to turn their multimedia productions (written and audio) into social media adapted format and to push those contents according to their recommendation algorithms would provide a major contribution to better prevent the flow of mis/disinformation that fills the gap of reliable information on social media.