Vasabladet interviews Dr. Diaz Ruiz

A few days ago, a journalist requested an interview for Vasabladet, which is a well-respected newspaper in Vaasa, Finland. I met Mr. Rosse for a long interview in which we discussed my research on disinformation and conspiracy theories.

The interview discusses how the current definition of disinformation as malicious false information is too simple to fully capture one of the defining phenomena of social media. Instead, we discussed that most of what qualifies as disinformation can be defined as an adversarial campaign that weaponizes multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value-laden judgements—to exploit and amplify identity-driven controversies.

For the interview, please go to Vasabladet (In Swedish and behind a paywall). For the research paper, please visit the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing (research is open access)