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MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION IN ARMENIA
Social media has become one of the main sources of consuming info in Armenia and there's a proliferation of sources of shady provenance (e.g. PerfectTV) or sensationalist dangerous demagogues like Vardan Ghukasyan (aka "Dog") below https://twitter.com/HankDumanian/status/1357857999965028353
Social media has become one of the main sources of consuming info in Armenia and there's a proliferation of sources of shady provenance (e.g. PerfectTV) or sensationalist dangerous demagogues like Vardan Ghukasyan (aka "Dog") below https://twitter.com/HankDumanian/status/1357857999965028353
Viewership equal to 10% of the population of Armenia for a single episode (and that's only on Youtube) is huge. Established news programs average much less viewership per episode.
All are affected but older age groups (with less media literacy) are especially vulnerable.
All are affected but older age groups (with less media literacy) are especially vulnerable.
It has gotten much worse in Armenia over the past 3 years thanks to the current government which sponsors (or obviously tolerates) outlets like PerfectTV. This condition consumers to be more accepting of fake news, which in turn leads to phenomena such as Vardan Ghukasyan.
People like Ghukasyan may feed viewers with small doses of truth as part of their sensational "leaks". Some of the leaks sound credible but they use this to bootstrap themselves into an authority figure and a general conduit for gossip and disinformation of all kinds.
According to unofficial data that I'm collecting (taking the difference of views as of 1/1/2021 and 12/1/2020) Vardan Ghukasyan is #6 on Armenian Youtube. But look at all the other sources in yellow.
