Daniel Jolley, University of Nottingham; Karen Douglas, University of Kent, and Mathew Marques, La Trobe University
People’s first instinct when engaging with conspiracy believers is often to try and debunk their ideas with factual and authoritative information.
Adrian Winckles, Anglia Ruskin University and Andrew Moore, Anglia Ruskin University
You may know nothing about it, but your phone – or your laptop or tablet – could be taken over by someone else who has found their way in through a back door. They could have infected your device with malware to make it a “bot” or a “zombie” and be using it – perhaps with hundreds of other unwitting victims’ phones – to launch a cyberattack.
Lutsenko_Oleksandr | Shutterstock
Paul Ian Campbell, University of Leicester and Marcus Maloney, Coventry University
EA Sports’ Fifa football videogame series is arguably the most successful sports gaming franchise of all time. Since its debut in 1993, it has sold over 260 million copies across 29 iterations. This position was reaffirmed in 2022, with its latest instalment, Fifa23, reported as the UK’s highest selling videogame at Christmas.
Felia Allum, University of Bath
Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the leaders of the Sicilian mafia, the Cosa Nostra, has finally been detained after 30 years on the run. His arrest came as around 100 police officers surrounded the private Maddalena clinic in Palermo where they had discovered he was receiving treatment.
Taha Yasseri, University College Dublin
At the end of every year, I gather statistics on the most viewed Wikipedia articles of the year. This helps me, a computational social scientist, understand what topics captured the most attention and gives me a chance to reflect on the major public events of the year. I try to use data to determine how the public (and more specifically here, English-language Wikipedia readers) will collectively remember the past year.
Paul TJ French, Liverpool John Moores University
The arrest of influencer Andrew Tate in Romania on charges of sex trafficking and sexual abuse will do little to deter his supporters. For some time now, those outside his sphere of influence have looked on bemused as to how he appears to have accumulated so much power over young people.
Rafael R. Ioris, University of Denver
Thousands of far-right supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace on Jan. 8, 2023.
John Hammond, University of Reading and Yiorgos Gadanakis, University of Reading
Welcome to this special report on the food industry, the fourth instalment in our series on where the global economy is heading in 2023. It follows recent articles on inflation, energy and the cost of living.
Viren Swami, Anglia Ruskin University
The festive season seems to be a good time for love, or so many Christmas films would have us believe. One incredibly popular trope is “the return” – where the main character, usually with a successful career in the city, returns to their hometown for the festive period.
Andrea Wigfield, Sheffield Hallam University and John Ratcliffe, Sheffield Hallam University
Christmas is said to be a time for connecting with friends, family and having fun. But it can also be time of loneliness. Indeed, the results of a 2018 survey looking at loneliness during Christmas time in the UK revealed that 17% of people felt more lonely over the festive period.