The Less Hate, More Speech project examined the role political elites and mass media play, intentionally or unintentionally, in reducing or promoting anti-democratic and intolerant discourse among the citizens. It engaged an international group of social scientists in designing and employing online experiments, cross-national surveys and content analysis of online commentary on media content to understand the factors that shape the tone of everyday talk among Romanians, and create differences and similarities between Romania and Norway in popular responses to various discursive frames and elite signals.

The project also had an applied component to establish the extent to which the tone of everyday talk can be changed to promote a tolerant, inclusive and pro-democratic public discourse in a contemporary Romanian real-life setting frequented by hundreds of thousand citizens.

The project was completed on schedule.

Identification information:

The Less Hate, More Speech: An Experimental and Comparative Study in Media and Political Elites’ Ability to Nurture Civil, Tolerant, Pro-Democratic Citizens project has the following number: 11 SEE/30.06.2014

Financing:

The project is financed through the EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014, EEA Research Programme. The value of the public financing is 3.516.880 lei, the equivalent of 800.000 euros (85% grant financing, 15% public co-financing)

Period:

July 2014 - April 2017