Fake news and disinformation – the effect on elections and democracy

Election Watch provides non-partisan, fact-based, expert analysis of key elections in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and around the world.

We draw on the expertise of staff and senior students to provide analysis that cuts through the spin in a world grappling with fake news and a significant drop in mainstream media coverage of policy.

Election Watch is based at the Melbourne School of Government and is fully funded by the University of Melbourne.

Cathy Harper is the Project Lead and Editor of Election Watch, the Melbourne School of Government’s flagship digital publication. Election Watch publishes independent expert non-partisan analysis on election-related policy. Cathy has 15 years’ experience as a senior journalist and producer in news and current affairs at the ABC and SBS; and she was an Australian stringer for NPR News in Washington DC for seven years. She has reported from the US in the lead-up to the 2004 Presidential election, East Timor, and remote Australian Indigenous communities. She graduated from the University of Melbourne (BA Hons, LLB Hons) in 1999.