Newspapers’ Online Discussion Boards: Democratic Tools Or Conspiracy Theories’ Engines? Readers’ Perspectives on an Eastern European “Media War”

• In Event: News Audiences: New Findings

Abstract

This paper analyses quantitatively and qualitatively 1,583 comments by national newspapers’ online readers in Bulgaria. It investigates readers’ reactions to articles discussing the media war between the biggest press groups – one owned by an MP known as “the Murdoch of the East”. The study explores how these stories influence the relationship between newspapers and their readers and whether they enhance the democratic potential of online discussion. The results show a higher level of reader engagement than in established democracies or non-democracies. The online space provides an arena for democratic deliberation but it is also used as an engine for conspiracy theories.

Author

• Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova, U of Chester