Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change

Listen to the new episode of the Pulse as we interview Chris Roper the deputy CEO for the continent’s largest federation of civic technology and data journalism labs, Code for Africa (CfA). Chris also serves as director for CfA’s forensic data initiative, the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR). From 2015 - 2019, Chris’ role at CfA was underwritten by a Knight International Fellowship, with the International Centre for Journalists. Prior to joining CfA, Chris was editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian, and editor-in-chief of 24.com

Camaren Peter, PhD, Executive Director of the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC) and Ebrahim Fakir , Director of Programmes at the Auwal Socio Economic Research Institute (ASRI) delve into how social media was used during the South African Local Government Elections 2021 as well as engage in a broader discussion the role of social media in elections. This discussion also follows a series of research articles over the election period which can be found at www.cabc.org.za

A Prof Camaren Peter, Executive Director of the CABC interrogates traditional and social media's role in reporting, analysing and fueling the unrest with Heather Robertson, editor of Daily Maverick 168 and Herman Wasserman Senior Research Associate of the CABC.

A Prof Camaren Peter, Executive Director of the CABC interrogates traditional and social media's role in reporting, analysing and fueling the unrest with Heather Robertson, editor of Daily Maverick 168 and Herman Wasserman Senior Research Associate of the CABC.

The final conversation with Caolan is a conversation about solutions, and about the future. Caolan has a unique perspective on how the right-wing media operates and what has made it so successful, in this episode we discuss the complexity of working to address disinformation, ‘fake news’ and hate speech online. This episode looks at what Caolan is working on right now, and what he thinks may be effective in responding to and weakening right-wing narrative manipulation occurring in South Africa.

Caolan Robertson: Former Far-Right Movie Producer, Currently Director at ByLine Times
Adam Armstrong: Project Head - Digital Narrative Manipulation, Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change

In this episode Coalan discusses his journey into the ‘far right’, as well as his decision to leave. Coalan worked with a number of the leading figures in the alt-right media space, including Lauren Southern, Alex Jones, Mike Cernovich, Milo Yiannopoulos, Roger Stone, Tommy Robinson and Stefan Molyneux. The content that he created resulted in hundreds of millions of views, and over time he became disillusioned with those in the far-right media space. In this interview Caolan discusses his reasons for entering the right, as well as his reasons for leaving.