In an era where wildfires rage across Europe, water crises grip the US, and massive infrastructure projects like China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) reshape global landscapes, two invisible forces are amplifying the chaos: misinformation and environmental decline. Fueled by AI’s rapid evolution, false narratives spread rapidly online, eroding public trust, polarizing societies, and even weakening democratic processes. As a result, this two-year project with the shortened title “Impact of Misinformation & Mistrust on Environmental Issues & Democracy: A Comparative Study” aims to offer real solutions to fight back, as well as reveal ideological patterns of online news discourse that have not been studied before to such an extent. The project, funded by the AXA Research Fund and hosted at Hong Kong Baptist University, dives deep into how digital falsehoods distort our understanding of environmental disasters, turning urgent global challenges into battlegrounds for division and manipulation.

By scrutinizing coverage from 12 major outlets—like the Washington Post, South China Morning Post (SCMP), Euronews, and Politico Europe—the research employs Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA) and investigates three high-stakes case studies: (a) Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), (b) Water Pollution in the United States, and (c) European Wildfires (Spotlight on Greece). This method uncovers not just what misinformation says, but also how environmental information is distributed and how it constructs ideological biases, polarized narratives, and targeted campaigns that prey on fears.

The goal of case studies? To reveal patterns across regions—common threads like amplified distrust and unique risks, such as how BRI narratives could spark polarized discussion and external interference.

So far, the following presentations have been given that are linked with this AXA Research Grant:

1. Karyotakis, M.-A. (2025). Studying the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): Environmental Misinformation in English-Language Online News Discourse of China. 2025 Chinese Studies Association of Australia (CSAA) Biennial Conference, 1 – 3 December, Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies (CCCS), Asia Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia.
2. Karyotakis, M.-A. (2025). Unveiling the Impact of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): A Study of Environmental Misinformation and Mistrust in Online News Discourse. European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference 2025, 26 – 29 August, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
3. Karyotakis, M.-A. (2025). Targeted Misinformation and the Wildfires in Europe: Studying the Ideological Polarization of Online News Coverage in Europe. IAMCR Conference, 13-17 July, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
4. Karyotakis, M.-A. (2025). Polarisation and Targeted Misinformation in the USA News Coverage about Water Pollution: Accelerating the Climate Crisis?. HEPP5 Conference, 5-7 March, University of Helsinki. [YouTube – EN]