A special GTTO broadcast about antisemitism, conspiracy theories, and their impact on Jewish communities in Britain
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In a special production for Get The Trolls Out!, community media podcasters Lydia El Khouri of Radio Verulam and Chiara Muzzi of Source FM discuss the Get The Trolls Out! new report on conspiracy ideologies and anti-Jewish hatred on the major social media platforms.
Produced by the Media Diversity Institute as part of Get The Trolls Out! and in collaboration with its partners Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, Center for Independent Journalism, European Network on Religion and Belief, European Union of Jewish Students, Karpos, LICRA and ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, the research highlights the concerning presence of antisemitism within the anti-vaccine discourse on Facebook and Twitter.
In the first part of the podcast, two of the report’s researchers and contributors - Eline Jeanné for the UK and Maia Feijoo for France - offer insights into the findings.
Providing examples from their media monitoring work, they explain that anti-vaxxers often use Holocaust comparisons and consider themselves as the ’new Jews’, and that the variation of established antisemitic conspiracy ideologies, such as ‘The Great Reset’ and the ‘New World Order’, play a significant role and are seen in several countries.
In the second part of the podcast, the producers discuss with Rabbi Adam from the St Albans Synagogue how the antisemitism within the anti-vaccine discourse impacts the Jewish community.
Rabbi Adam recommends the book “People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present” by Dara Horn, which denounces the current fascination with Jewish deaths and the little respect for Jewish lives.
The programme is currently being broadcast by various community radios in Britain including:
Leicester Community Radio broadcast on 2 December under their ‘Live Chat’ slot on LCR1 and can be played it back here.
SoundArt aired the production on 2 December at 9 am
Source FM aired the production on 3 December at 1 pm
The study “Antisemitism and Anti-Vax Discourse in Europe: A report on conspiracy ideologies and anti-Jewish hatred on Facebook and Twitter” can be downloaded here.
About the producers
Lydia El-Khouri has a weekly show on Radio Verulam, a community radio station in St Albans, Hertfordshire, presenting and producing The Parents’ Show for over ten years. Lydia is also a programme manager at Textgain - AI for good.
Chiara Muzzi is a radio presenter and producer and was a development manager for Source FM until June 2021, where she sought to increase the diversity of voices, especially women’s, and support the radio in a strategy for sustainability, both financial and environmental.
