Disaster Trolls: Marianna Spring

Jan 11, 2023, 06:00 AM

What happens when tragedy makes you a target? Why would anybody accuse terrorism survivors of being liars and "crisis actors"?

On this week's Radio Academy Podcast, Christian talks to the BBC's Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent Marianna Spring. 

For her Radio 4 series Disaster Trolls, she's been investigating how people caught up in the Manchester Arena bombing and other UK terror attacks are targeted with extreme conspiracy theories, online abuse and threats. 

Marianna explains how she set about making the series, the journalistic considerations when putting something like this on the air, how you go about doorstepping potentially dangerous people, and some of the realities of being a journalist in the social media age.