Testing and unpacking the effects of digital fake news: on presidential candidate evaluations and voter support
| Autor: | Charlie Beckett, Rodolfo Leyva |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
PN1990 Broadcasting
Presidential system business.industry media_common.quotation_subject 05 social sciences JF Political institutions (General) 050801 communication & media studies Sample (statistics) Advertising Framing effect New media Democracy 0506 political science Human-Computer Interaction Philosophy 0508 media and communications Artificial Intelligence Voting 050602 political science & public administration Priming (media) The Internet business Psychology media_common |
| Zdroj: | AI & SOCIETY. 35:969-980 |
| ISSN: | 1435-5655 0951-5666 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00146-020-00980-6 |
| Popis: | There is growing worldwide concern that the rampant spread of digital fake news (DFN) via new media technologies is detrimentally impacting Democratic elections. However, the actual influence of this recent Internet phenomenon on electoral decisions has not been directly examined. Accordingly, this study tested the effects of attention to DFN on readers’ Presidential candidate preferences via an experimental web-survey administered to a cross-sectional American sample (N = 552). Results showed no main effect of exposure to DFN on participants’ candidate evaluations or vote choice. However, the perceived believability of DFN about the Democratic candidate negatively mediated evaluations of that candidate—especially amongst far-right ideologues. These results suggest that DFN may at worst reinforce the partisan dispositions of mostly politically conservative Internet users, but does not cause or induce conversions in these dispositions. Overall, this study contributes novel experimental evidence, indicating that the potential electoral impact of DFN, although concerning, is strongly conditional on a reciprocal interaction between message receptibility and a pre-existing right-wing ideological orientation. The said impact is, therefore, likely narrow in scope. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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