DigiKomm 2026
Utopias and dystopias of the digital society:
30 years of research on computer-mediated communication
September 16–18, 2026, Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin, Germany
Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Session 14 (EN): Digital News, Disinformation, and Their Effects Location: Main hall Session Chair: Martin Emmer | |
| Presentation 3 | |
False Balance and the Spread of Right-Wing Populism on Social Media: A Network Analysis of Discursive Clusters on Conspiracy and Migration Topics Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany This study uses mixed-methods social network analysis to explore the structure of right-wing populist and conspiracy networks on public German Telegram groups. Analyzing data scraped between September 2024 and September 2025 via exponential snowball sampling, the study constructed a network of 15,959 nodes and 59,346 edges. Community detection identified 11 distinct clusters (Modularity Q=0.457). Qualitative coding of the most central channels revealed a pervasive right-wing populist presence and a significant thematic focus on pro-Russian war propaganda. Additionally, hyperlink analysis of 88,981 messages demonstrated how the network connects to broader online discourses. Findings indicate that distinct clusters fulfill specific functions—from soft entry points for conspiracies to protest mobilization—structurally facilitating a "false balance" of facts by completely omitting opposing mainstream viewpoints. | |
