10.11.2023 | DSC Seed Grant

The DSC supports the creation of a news page dataset



The project aims at building the first, detailed dataset of unreliable news sites in German-speaking regions. The dataset will be used to develop software that informs internet users about problematic news websites.

A compilation of links that were shared by COVID deniers in German-speaking Telegram groups, serves as a basis for the dataset. Over a period of three years, links from 4661 groups leading to more than 200.000 different domains were collected. The project aims at coding as many of the shared domains as possible.

In order to analyse the respective websites, a coding guideline has already been developed. The guideline was built on empirical results from 43 semi-structured interviews that were conducted with political parties from the Bremen Parliament and journalists from the United States. With the help of the interviews, different reliability criteria for news websites were defined. These criteria will be used to code the collected domains and thereby create the first, extensive and open dataset of unreliable news sites in German-speaking regions.

The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Faculty 03 (Mathematics and Computer Science) and Faculty 08 (Social Sciences). Also involved in the project is DSC Seed Grant recipient Dr. Dennis Redeker (ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research).

The dataset will then allow to build a software that informs internet users about problematic websites. For this purpose, prototypes for browser extensions are being designed which enable users to access the coding results for different news sites. Thus, the dataset will contribute to the development of socio-technical solutions against the spread of misinformation.

Funding recipients:
Prof. Dr. Hendrik Heuer (Faculty 03 – Mathematics and Computer Science)
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Geise (Faculty 08 – ZeMKI)
Dr. Daria Dergacheva (Faculty 08 – ZeMKI)

Funding period:
01 October 2023 - 31 March 2024

Author: Svenja Goers
If you have any questions regarding the DSC Seed Grant, feel free to contact me.

Dr. Lena Steinmann
DSC Coordinator
+49 (421) 218 - 63941
lena.steinmann@uni-bremen.de



« back