Populist attitudes and politicians' disinformation accusations

Author(s)
Jana Laura Egelhofer, Ming Manuel Boyer, Sophie Lecheler, Loes Aaldering
Abstract

Populist politicians increasingly accuse opposing media of spreading disinformation or “fake news.” However, empirical research on the effects of these accusations is scarce. This survey experiment (N = 1,330) shows that disinformation accusations reduce audience members’ trust in the accused news outlet and perceived accuracy of the news message, while trust in the accusing politician is largely unaffected. However, only individuals with strong populist attitudes generalize disinformation accusations to the media as an institution and reduce their general media trust. The phrase “fake news” does not amplify any of these effects. These findings suggest that politicians can undermine the credibility of journalism without much repercussion—a mechanism that might also threaten other authoritative information sources in democracies such as scientists and health authorities.

Organisation(s)
Department of Communication, Department of Government
External organisation(s)
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Journal
Journal of Communication
Volume
72
Pages
619–632
No. of pages
14
ISSN
0021-9916
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqac031
Publication date
12-2022
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
508007 Communication science, 508014 Journalism
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Communication, Language and Linguistics, Linguistics and Language
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/populist-attitudes-and-politicians-disinformation-accusations(b6c68df8-4598-42f9-bd3b-66e6b811a0cf).html