Nomadic Narratives: The Cross-Border Spread of Misinformation in South Asia

"Nomadic Narratives: The Cross-Border Spread of Misinformation in South Asia" is regional research project with ULAB, CMR-Nepal and SLPI conducting research in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The Center for Media Research – Nepal (CMR-Nepal) organized a summary report launch and discussion on “Nomadic Narratives: The Cross-Border Spread of Misinformation in South Asia” on November 14 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

“Nomadic Narratives: The Cross-Border Spread of Misinformation in South Asia” is regional research led by University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) with CMR-Nepal and Sri Lanka Press Institution (SLPI) as the co-investigators. The research is funded by The Asia Foundation’s South Asia Governance Program.

During the Kathmandu program, CMR-Nepal’s Executive Director and research lead Tilak Pathak introduced CMR-Nepal, it’s works and shared background of the collaborative research project.

Research Associate Chetana Kunwar talked about the methodology of the research and talked about the data collection – both quantitative and qualitative – in Nepal. She said CMR-Nepal conducted 8 key informant interviews, 2 focus group discussions, and netnography for a month to understand transnational misinformation.

Kunwar also said CMR-Nepal categorized 350+ fact-checked misinformation, shortlisted 20 transnational misinformation and conducted detailed studies on 10 of them relevant to the South Asian region.  

Nepal research coordinator Ujjwal Acharya shared the objectives and findings of the research, and the learnings from the regional collaborative research project.

The participants of the program provided feedback on the summary report which CMR-Nepal said would be put forth to regional team during discussions on final report.

The project website is here where the full report will be published soon and the summary report can be downloaded here.