"The perception of disinformation as societal risk has reached a troubling peak amid the COVID-19 pandemic, strategically targeting vulnerable audiences through digital media by mirroring characteristics of vox populi disinformation. This study investigates the conditions under which COVID-19-relate
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d disinformation referring to a polarized (refugees) and neutral (runners) out-group appears most credible. In the early stages of the pandemic, we conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment with a representative German sample (N = 1,117 ). Results indicated that those with low trust in the media judged subtle and completely fabricated types of disinformation as more credible than accurate information. Presenting the article as a social media post from an ordinary user, rather than an official source, had no discernible impact on credibility evaluations; participants accurately assessed the credibility of a random source. We conclude that people are generally able to recognize disinformation—unless they already mistrust the media. This paper addresses why disinformation triggers strong reactions in targeted groups and how it thrives in the participatory digital landscape." (Abstract)
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"The book highlights the underlying stakes that are involved in the fight against disinformation, from producing smart tools to generalizing their use beyond the journalistic profession. It considers the MIL theories and methodologies at work in the digital era, especially from the perspective of di
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gital visual literacy. Offering a comparative study of four European national experiences (France, Romania, Spain, and Sweden), the authors also make public policy recommendations to improve the fight against disinformation." (Publisher description)
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"Although disinformation has become a popular concept, we lack an integrative conceptualization that connects the actors, intentions and techniques underlying deceptive information. In this article, we conceptualize disinformation as a context-bound deliberate act for which actors covertly deceive r
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ecipients by de-contextualizing, manipulating or fabricating information to maximize utility with the (targeted) outcome of misleading recipients. This conceptualization embeds fragmented accounts of disinformation in a networked and participatory information logic, and offers a comprehensive account of the conditions under which different actors may decide to deceive, how they deceive, and what they aim to achieve by deceiving recipients. Our conceptualization may inform (machine-learning) techniques to detect disinformation and interventions that aim to trigger suspicion by breaking through the truth-default state." (Abstract)
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"Although interventions that warn about the harms of misinformation may be effective in lowering the credibility of false information, they may also cause suspicion related to factually accurate information. To explore these contradictory outcomes of exposure to media literacy messages, we used an o
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nline survey experiment with a diverse sample of 1105 participants in the U.S. In this experiment, we randomly exposed people to traditional warning messages about the threats of misinformation or relativising warning messages that placed misinformation’s threat in the context of the abundance of honest information. We additionally varied the specificity of the warning message (i.e. topic specific versus generic). We did not find direct overall effects on truth discernment but observed conditional effects on decreasing beliefs in misinformation and negative spillover effects on the truth rating of accurate information. We conclude that the effectiveness of media literacy interventions is far from straightforward, and document how preexisting media trust plays a key role in the effects of such interventions. Based on our findings, we suggest that the effectiveness of specific and general media literacy messages may be contingent upon tailoring the message to levels of existing (dis)trust." (Abstract)
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"The affordances of social media potentially amplify the effects of disinformation by offering the possibility to present deceptive content and sources in credible and native ways. We investigate the effects of two aspects related to the dissemination and modality of digital disinformation: (In)auth
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entic references to the ordinary people as sources of disinformation and the multimodal embedding of deceptive content. Using a pre-registered experiment in the United States and India (N = 1008), we found that adding decontextualized visuals to disinformation on climate change did not amplify its effects on credibility or user engagement. Mimicking ordinary citizen cues has a stronger effect than using an alternative hyper-partisan media source to communicate disinformation under certain conditions. Low levels of media trust and preferences for information from the vox populi moderate the effects of citizen-initiated disinformation, suggesting that disenchanted citizens who oppose established information may be most vulnerable to disinformation attacks from social bots or trolls." (Abstract)
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"This study tested the effectiveness of fact-check format (regular vs. satirical) to refute different types of false information. Specifically, we conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment (N = 849) that compared the effects of regular fact-checkers and satirist refutations in response to
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mis- and disinformation about crime rates. The findings illustrated that both fact-checking formats – factual and satirical – were equally effective in lowering issue agreement and perceived credibility in response to false information. Instead of a backfire effect, moreover, the regular factcheck was particularly effective among people who agreed with the fact-check information; for satirical fact-checking, the effect was found across-the-board. Both formats were ineffective in decreasing affective polarization; it rather increased polarization under specific conditions (satire; agreeing with the fact-check)." (Abstract)
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"In the battle against misinformation, do negative spillover effects of communicative efforts intended to protect audiences from inaccurate information exist? Given the relatively limited prevalence of misinformation in people’s news diets, this study explores if the heightened salience of misinfo
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rmation as a persistent societal threat can have an unintended spillover effect by decreasing the credibility of factually accurate news. Using an experimental design (N = 1305), we test whether credibility ratings of factually accurate news are subject to exposure to misinformation, corrective information, misinformation warnings, and news media literacy (NML) interventions relativizing the misinformation threat. Findings suggest that efforts like warning about the threat of misinformation can prime general distrust in authentic news, hinting toward a deception bias in the context of fear of misinformation being salient. Next, the successfulness of NML interventions is not straight forward if it comes to avoiding that the salience of misinformation distorts people’s creditabilityaccuracy. We conclude that the threats of the misinformation order may not just be remedied by fighting false information, but also by reestablishing trust in legitimate news." (Abstract)
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"In the midst of heated debates surrounding the veracity and honesty of communication, scholarly attention has turned to the conceptualization of mis- and disinformation on the supply-side of (political) communication. Yet, we lack systematic research on the conceptualization of perceived mis- and d
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isinformation on the demand-side. Original survey data collected in ten European countries (N = 6,643) shows that news consumers distinguish general misinformation from disinformation. Yet, the high correlation between the two dimensions indicates that disinformation perceptions may be regarded as a sub-type of misinformation perceptions in which intentional deception is a core element. This paper aims to make a contribution to the misinformation and media credibility literature by proposing a first conceptualization of perceived untruthfulness corresponding to increasing levels of cynicism and skepticism toward the factual status and honesty of information." (Abstract)
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"Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 Filipino reporters and editors from three influential media outlets that then President Rodrigo Duterte targeted as enemies – the broadcaster ABS-CBN, the newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer, and the website Rappler – this paper offers novel i
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nsights on journalists’ counterstrategies with appeals to their strengthened roles as watchdogs, interpreters and disseminators of populist communication. Findings indicate that journalists discard practices like false equivalence and shift roles including from being detached observers to media freedom advocates and truth activists to respond to institutional attacks, rising disinformation, and perceived democratic erosion as they seek to speak truth to a populist in power. The study provides theoretical and empirical contributions by combining paradigm repair and role perceptions as tools in analyzing journalists’ responses to legitimacy threats, and by presenting an understudied case of anti-media populism in the Global South." (Abstract)
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"This companion brings together various concepts used to analyse dimensions of media disinformation and populism. The companion is theoretically and methodologically comprehensive and features various historical and critical approaches providing a full and incisive understanding of media, misinforma
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tion and populism. It is both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary consisting of contributions from scholars analysing aspects of misinformation, disinformation and populism across countries, political systems and media systems. A global, comparative approach to the study of misinformation and populism is important in identifying common elements and particular characteristics, and these individual essays cover a wide range of topics and themes, with contributions from both leading and young scholars. The distinctiveness of the companion is its encompassing of a variety of subject areas: Political Communication, Journalism, Law, Sociology, Cultural studies, International Politics, and International Relations." (Publisher description)
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