Zsofia Bocskay

Zsofia Bocskay is a post-doctoral researcher at the CEU Democracy Institute and a member of the Research Group on De- and Re-Democratization at Central European University, with additional affiliation as a research fellow at Koç University in Istanbul.

She earned her PhD in Political Science from Koç University, establishing her expertise in comparative political systems. Her research focuses on political communication in autocratizing states, examining how government and opposition parties utilize agenda-setting strategies, populist appeals, and campaign negativity to shape public discourse. She investigates media systems and voter behavior in competitive authoritarian regimes, with special attention to local elections as critical arenas for political power consolidation.

Dr. Bocskay's research demonstrates how partisan news consumption significantly influences belief in misinformation, with individuals tending to accept claims aligning with their political affiliations. Her recent work examines misinformation dynamics in the 2023 Turkish general elections, revealing television's continued dominance as an information source compared to social media's limited but conditionally corrective impact.

She actively contributes to academic discourse by organizing the DRD Workgroup's Illuminating Books series, which highlights recent scholarship in democracy and politics. Her professional activities span both research publication and academic community building across institutions in Budapest and Istanbul.