Elections and Alternative Narratives

Strategic disinformation and conspiracy theories can sow discord in societies by shaping political discourse, public perceptions, and voting behavior. This paper examines how disinformation campaigns surrounding episodic or cyclical electoral events—from political party leadership transitions, political assassination attempts, and other crises—exploit high-stakes moments to influence public perceptions and rationalize extreme responses. Through an analysis of a novel dataset combining mainstream news coverage and social media content from the 2024 U.S. electoral cycle, we investigate how both unexpected political developments and scheduled electoral milestones become foundations for the emergence and dissemination of alternative narratives in the digital realm, often bearing characteristics of mis/disinformation. Our mixed-methods approach combines natural language processing approaches with qualitative content analysis to track how political events are reframed through alternative lenses, examining the relationship between digital spaces, extremism and escalating political tensions. This study advances our understanding of how digital narratives can shape political worldviews and behavior, while offering practical insights for identifying and countering potentially harmful online dynamics.