Political disinformation is rampant online. To help citizens navigate between fact and fiction, McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy spearheaded a project to create Attention Control, a weekly podcast dedicated to understanding how technology is being used to influence public opinion in Canada and around the world.
The podcast is among Canada’s first wholly foundation-supported public interest journalism projects.
In its first series, which was hosted by award-winning journalist Kevin Newman, Attention Control focused on how digital platforms, tools and data were used to shape voting intentions in the 2019 Canadian federal election.
The series culminated in an episode posted shortly after polls closed, which concluded that while interference from foreign actors and disinformation campaigns did not have an impact on the election’s outcome, there is still cause for concern.
The final episode featured commentary from McGill’s Taylor Owen, Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communication at the Max Bell School of Public Policy, who made regular appearances on Attention Control and acted as the podcast's academic lead.
Owen shared findings from The Digital Democracy Project, a joint initiative with Ottawa-based Public Policy Forum studying the media ecosystem around the election, of which he is the Director.
“One of the things we saw in our project is real echo chambers in the online debate, where partisans were just talking to each other,” explained Owen. “I think that tells us something about the broader health of the media ecosystem. There are some real warning signs here... But we didn’t see a lot of formal disinformation campaigns, either international or domestic.”
For Owen, Attention Control played a vital role in communicating his research to the public, and in sparking a national debate about the role of technology in our democratic process. “Understanding the digital media ecosystem and how information is shaping the minds of voters is absolutely critical to ensuring a free and fair election,” he says.
The podcast is funded by The David Family Foundation and The Rossy Foundation.
Curious to learn more? Listen to Attention Control now.