From the editor — Tatiana Carter

IT IS bittersweet to be nearing the end of my master's degree: This year has been a period of tremendous personal growth.

Again, thank you for stopping by my website. If you are here, it means you want to learn more about social media and the way it impacts you – I hope I have been able to enlighten you in some way. Now, we must enlighten others.

Currently, I am debating deleting my social media accounts. It feels negligent to partake in these propaganda machines, but still, I fall victim to its pleasures. So, I encourage you, make your own conclusions, and tread lightly when interacting with information online.

None of this research would have been possible without the patience and encouragement of my supervisor, Professor Jeffrey Brand. Thank you for dedicating your time to helping me see this through, it would be nothing without your input.

Special thanks are given to my lecturer’s past and present at Bond University. Each one of you has contributed to the success of this project in more ways than one. I would like to acknowledge Dr Caroline Graham for allowing me to bounce ideas off of her in the early stages of this project – I was lucky to be under her supervision for a brief moment in time.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents Christina and Anthony Carter who have been my biggest cheerleaders throughout this project. While disinformation and conspiracy theories are not their expertise, they made a great effort to understand what I was doing. I love you both very much.

Tatiana