Digital political campaigning:

DIGIEFFECT is a Next Generation EU research project (1,4 million EUR 2023-2026) led by Dr. Gabriela Borz  which investigates the risks associated with digital political campaigning in the European Union. Combining insights from European and corporate governance, public policy and political behaviour, DIGIEFFECT applies a risk governance approach to digital political campaigning regimes. Risk governance for digital political campaigning involves the awareness, prioritization, mediation and prevention of on-line risks as assessed at three levels: by the regulator, addressees of regulation and citizens. The primary goal is to assess the regulation of digital campaigning by focusing on citizens’ perceptions and evaluations. More specifically, the project investgates to what degree regulatory instruments adopted by the EU, national governments and by the on-line corporations contribute to reducing on-line (and off-line) mis/dis/malinformation during electoral campaigns.

The main research questions which inform the project are as follows: How do citizens perceive digital campaigning regulatory regimes?
Which regulatory measures are most effective in reducing on-line mis/dis/malinformation?

DIGIEFFECT has the following broad research objectives:

(1) describe citizens’ attitudes towards digital political campaigning across various on-line platforms and their perceptions of risk during digital political campaigning
(2) investigate the regulators’ and corporate risk governance in the context of digital political campaigning
(3) explain the variation in citizens’ on-line political literacy by identifying solutions which reduce on-line mis/dis/malinformation.