ABSTRACT
Disinformation has become one of the main problems for society and democracy. Despite the increase in research on this topic, citizen perception of the effects caused by fake news and how to combat it is yet an ongoing issue. Our objective is to analyze these two aspects in the context of COVID-19 in Spain. Also, we seek to identify the sociodemographic and political factors that determine them. We employed a quantitative survey run through an online panel (n=682). The results indicate that disinformation generates, as the primary effect, an increase in mistrust towards the media and politicians among Spanish citizens. Likewise, the incidence of disinformation in the change of opinion and the decision to vote has dropped. Concerning Coronavirus, falsehoods had a low impact on vaccination, although they promoted conspiracy theories among citizens. Men, young people and far-right sympathizers perceive the consequences of deception more intensely. Finally, the work of fact-checking agencies and legislation are the mechanisms to combat disinformation that citizens consider most reliable. These results have important implications for public institutions and journalism. © 2023 Scientific Association Icono14. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
News media coverage, regardless of the platform being used, can shape people's opinions, perceptions, behaviors, and preferences about policy, security, and civil liberties in times of crisis. This study examines the possible cultivation impact of news post exposure on Facebook on shaping threat perception. Furthermore, it aims at exploring the correlation between Facebook news exposure, preferring high security levels, and curbing some civil liberties during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this, we used the survey method (N=1309) with youths aged 18-35 in the U.S., Spain, and Egypt. Our results showed that heavy news exposure on Facebook cultivated fear and terror perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it shaped people's preference for a tightened security environment and willingness to trade off some civil liberties. In other words, despite the different media and political systems, heavy news post consumption on Facebook can increase the tendency to give up civil liberty rights and prefer a more stringent security environment. © 2023 Reham Gamal Omar and Andreu Casero-Ripollés.
ABSTRACT
Disinformation has become one of the main problems for society and democracy. Despite the increase in research on this topic, citizen perception of the effects caused by fake news and how to combat it is yet an ongoing issue. Our objective is to analyze these two aspects in the context of COVID-19 in Spain. Also, we seek to identify the sociodemographic and political factors that determine them. We employed a quantitative survey run through an online panel (n= 682). The results indicate that disinformation generates, as the primary effect, an increase in mistrust towards the media and politicians among Spanish citizens. Likewise, the incidence of disinformation in the change of opinion and the decision to vote has dropped. Concerning Coronavirus, falsehoods had a low impact on vaccination, although they promoted conspiracy theories among citizens. Men, young people and far -right sympathizers perceive the consequences of hoaxes more intensely. Finally, fact -checking and legislation are the mechanisms to combat disinformation that citizens consider most reliable. These results have important implications for public institutions and journalism.
ABSTRACT
Many research studies defined news pages that connect users with public affairs as social media influencers. This includes opinion leaders, journalists, media personnel, editors, and political experts. In this sense, news consumption on influencers' Facebook pages can have the same cultivation impact as consuming news on any offline platform, particularly during times of threat. Within this, we aim to reexamine the cultivation theory in the context of social media. Thus, we explore the role of influencers on Facebook in cultivating threat perception among youths during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, to examine the possible correlation between threat perception and favoring of more restrictive policies on Facebook news coverage. For this, we used the survey method (n=1,309) on youths aged 18-35 years in Egypt, Spain, and the USA. In this respect, our data revealed a significant relationship between news consumption on influencers' Facebook pages and threat level. The more people consume news on influencers' Facebook pages, the higher their threat perception is. Our findings also demonstrate that even though the cultivation assumption is valid in the context of Facebook, there are variations from the TV context postulation. Nowadays, people are aware of the effect of their news exposure on shaping their perception yet being aware did not mediate the cultivation effect. © 2023 by authors.
ABSTRACT
Social media currentlyoccupyan increasinglycentral communicative space during electoral campaigns. Specifically, Twitter is one of the leading platforms in digital political communication, as it offers an overview of the discursive lines and strategies of parties and candidates. This becomes even more important during the COVID-19, which makes impossible to hold a traditional campaign. This is the case of the regional elections for the Community of Madrid on 4 May 2021. This research analyses the Twitter campaign of the main parties: PP, Mas Madrid, PSOE, Vox, Podemos and Ciudadanos. Through a quantitative content analysis, 1760 tweets are examined and its thematic agenda, functions, emotions, COVID-19 and references to the candidates are studied. The results indicate the predominance of the Game Frame in the thematic agenda, combined with the criticism of the opponent as the main strategy. Negative emotions take a central place and COVID-19 is used as a political element during the campaign, with the PP candidate, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, as the protagonist of the campaign. Finally, the references to the candidates suggest a communicative strategy in a national key to attack political rivals, particularly the Spanish Prime Minister. Overall, this campaign opens a new communication strategy on Twitter that we have called digital negativity and that is based on the attack on political rivals as the main element.
ABSTRACT
The use of mobile instant messaging platforms has increased in recent years in political communication given the private nature of this form of communication, a trend which has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this research is to know the Telegram usage done by the main political parties within the election campaign. For this purpose, the Catalan election of the 14th of February 2021 are studied with a quantitative content analysis on a sample composed of 600 messages published by five political parties (PSC, Vox Barcelona, ERC, Junts per Catalunya, CUP and En Comú Podem). Results show that one of the most important functions of this platforms is the information and dissemination of its electoral programme. Regarding the main topics, the organization and functioning of the campaign and the political wrangling predominate. Our findings show that the position of the different parties regarding the independence of Catalonia, their political trajectory and their position within the government/opposition axis are conditioning factors of their communication strategy on this platform. Finally, the analysis of the public impact of the published messages reveals the disconnection between the parties and the citizens. In addition, a “more is more” effect which determines that the more messages are broadcast on this platform, the greater the number of views by users is, is detected. These data reveal new evidence on how Telegram is being used in the election campaign by political actors. © 2022 Communication & Society.