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Misinformation Research Amsterdam Mira

Misinformation Research Amsterdam (MiRA)

Understanding misinformation in context

Misinformation Research Amsterdam (MiRA) is a research initiative dedicated to studying misinformation not just as an isolated phenomenon, but as part of a broader crisis of truth and trust in digital societies.

At MiRA, we take a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach examining how misinformation is shaped by and embedded in the socio-political, technological, and organizational realities of contemporary information ecologies. Our goal is to develop evidence-based insights and recommendations that strengthen the resilience of citizens, institutions, and democracies in the long term. 

MiRA studies misinformation in context by focusing on four priorities: causes for misinformation, content of misinformation, consequences of misinformation and countering strategies against misinformation.  

Dr. Michael Hameleers
In the spotlight

Paper: Hameleers, M. (2025). The visual nature of information warfare: the construction of partisan claims on truth and evidence in the context of wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine. Journal of Communication, 75(2), 90-100.   

The finding: Across polarised conflicts, most fact-checked visual disinformation is not fabricated: it is real footage stripped of its original time, place, or context and re-used deceptively, constructing a “delusional rationality” that legitimises violence against an out-group while reassuring a positive image of the in-group. 

Why it matters: Responses and platform interventions during armed conflicts should target decontextualisation (establishing when and where an image is genuinely from), not only outright fakes. 

More about our research