The International Journal of Press/Politics

doi: 10.1177/19401612251384789pmid: N/A

Wang, Yi; lin, Han; Kim, Bumsoo; Kim, Yonghwan

doi: 10.1177/19401612251351149pmid: N/A

Fact-checking can play an essential role in reducing political misperceptions. However, how effective it is in doing so has yet to be understood. This study uses data from a two-wave panel survey administered during the 2022 Korean presidential election (Wave 1: N = 1175, Wave 2: N = 948) to examine the role of fact-checking news in reducing political misperceptions in the sociopolitical context of South Korea. Based on the Orientation-Stimulus-Reasoning-Orientation-Response model, we propose a reasoning process following fact-checking news use that involves cognitive elaboration and political discussion and examine the mediating effects of these processes in the relationship between the use of fact-checking news and individuals’ misperceptions. The findings suggest that cognitive elaboration and political discussion play significant roles in influencing the development of citizens’ political knowledge. Fact-checking reduces political misperceptions indirectly through elaboration, political discussion, and political knowledge. Implications of the findings for the effectiveness of fact-checking news are discussed.

Amakoh, Kelechi

doi: 10.1177/19401612251375535pmid: N/A

Negative campaigning is an age-old strategy, yet its impact on trust in election outcomes remains underexplored, particularly in newer democracies. In this study, I argue that negative campaign messages erode electoral trust by fostering cynicism, undermining confidence in politicians, and heightening the perceived stakes of elections. By signalling that candidates will do whatever it takes to win, such messages raise concerns about fraud and diminish institutional trust. I further contend that these effects depend on the autonomy of electoral management bodies (EMBs). When EMB autonomy is low, greater exposure to negative campaigning significantly increases perceptions that elections are unfair. By contrast, where EMBs are highly autonomous, negative campaigning does not reduce trust in electoral integrity and may even bolster it, as institutional safeguards reassure voters. To test these claims, I draw on Afrobarometer survey data from eighteen countries across three rounds, expert assessments of negative campaign coverage from the Negative Campaigning Comparative Expert Survey, and measures of EMB autonomy from Varieties of Democracy. My findings show that the interaction between media negativity and EMB independence shapes public trust in elections, underscoring the central role of electoral institutions in mediating the democratic consequences of campaign strategies.

Ejaz, Waqas; Sanford, Mary; Fletcher, Richard

doi: 10.1177/19401612251377854pmid: N/A

Despite the importance of climate news in shaping public engagement, little is known about how different types of media – mainstream and non-mainstream – relate to pro-climate behaviour, and what psychological processes condition these effects, particularly in cross-national contexts. This study addresses that gap by examining the emotional and evaluative mechanisms linking climate news use to pro-climate behavioural intentions (e.g., using less energy at home, flying less often, and repairing rather than replacing), and how these relationships vary across countries. Drawing on online survey data from 8,541 respondents across eight countries – Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States – we test a multi-group structural equation model with climate anxiety as a mediator and media trust as a moderator. Results show that mainstream news use is consistently associated with stronger behavioural intent across all countries. Non-mainstream media use has positive but more context-dependent effects, especially in settings where digital platforms dominate climate information. Climate anxiety emerges as a robust and universal predictor of behavioural intention, though it is not consistently shaped by media use – indicating that emotional responses may stem from sources beyond the news. Media trust amplifies the direct effects of mainstream news use but does not moderate the indirect pathway via anxiety. Overall, the findings reveal a surprising degree of cross-national consistency in how news use, media trust, and emotional responses shape climate engagement.

Wirz, Dominique S.; de León, Ernesto; Adam, Silke; Makhortykh, Mykola

doi: 10.1177/19401612251335372pmid: N/A

The knowledge gap hypothesis—the assumption that an increasing flow of news on a topic fosters a gap in knowledge between the more and the less educated—has been demonstrated in numerous studies throughout the past 60 years. Knowledge gaps are attributed to individual differences in media selection and information processing capacities. However, it has been difficult to investigate the relative influence of selection and processing with conventional research methods. We used an innovative combination of individual-level digital trace and survey data collected in Switzerland (n = 403) and Germany (n = 471) to study the widening of knowledge gaps throughout the communication process. The data were collected at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, an extraordinary period of extremely high information inflow on a novel topic. Our analyses show that individuals with lower education use less online news in general and less COVID-19-related news in particular than those with higher education, which results in a difference in knowledge about the origin of COVID-19 (but not on its severity). However, those with lower education do not have a similar share of COVID-19-related news in their news diet, and they learn even more than those with higher education from the COVID-19-related news that they are exposed to. Our study thus suggests that knowledge gaps are predominantly a result of selecting into news use.

Andersen, Kim; Shehata, Adam

doi: 10.1177/19401612251356664pmid: N/A

Prior research suggests that individuals not only prefer negative news over positive (negativity bias in news selection) but also favor information that aligns with their existing beliefs (confirmation bias). A likely consequence of these tendencies is that people will, on average, form beliefs that are biased toward perceiving reality as more negative, and that these dynamics will be mutually reinforcing over time. This study presents a preregistered longitudinal choice experiment designed to examine these dynamics in relation to negative and positive emphasis framing of news stories about Swedish schools. Contrary to the hypothesis of a general negativity bias in news selection, the results indicate a higher preference for positive news. However, the results support the expectation of a confirmation bias, as people with more negative (positive) beliefs were more like to choose negative (positive) news. Moreover, exposure to both positive and negative news led to more positive beliefs over time, suggesting that information effects were more influential than framing effects. Together, these findings challenge central claims within the literature on biases in news selection and their subsequent influence on societal beliefs.

La Lova, Lanabi

doi: 10.1177/19401612251405014pmid: N/A

This study investigates Russian television coverage of Ukraine between 2009 and 2019, drawing on a dataset of over 2.3 million news episodes from eight major television networks and one news agency (Interfax), including both state-controlled and relatively independent outlets. Combining natural language processing techniques with a quasi-experimental design, the analysis traces changes in content patterns over time. The results provide strong evidence consistent with the first hypothesis: following a state-enforced management change at RBC TV in 2016, the network increased the share of news coverage primarily focused on Ukraine by up to 40 percent, depending on the assumed treatment date. Evidence for the second hypothesis—which posits that RBC’s reporting would become more similar to state-controlled outlets—remains only partial. Cosine similarity analysis shows that RBC’s content became more similar to several state-controlled outlets while diverging from relatively independent TV Rain (Dozhd). Sentiment-polarity analysis indicates that RBC’s coverage became modestly more negative after the takeover. These findings suggest that content changes following institutional intervention may reflect increased alignment with state-linked narratives while preserving outlet-specific variation. The study contributes to research on media alignment in autocratic contexts by analyzing a single-case pattern and highlights both the potential and limitations of computational text analysis in examining large-scale trends in state media coverage.

Lim, Linette

doi: 10.1177/19401612251379585pmid: N/A

Authoritarian regimes seek to control information and influence international public opinion about themselves. While tools of control, such as propaganda, censorship, and digital surveillance, are well documented, less attention has been paid to how these regimes exert pressure on foreign correspondents operating within their borders. Using the case of China and drawing on more than fifty interviews with former and current foreign correspondents, this study examines the multifaceted nature of authoritarian media control and the responses it provokes. It highlights the significance of less obvious forms of control. These include indirect channeling tactics – such as legal ambiguity that deters reporting by creating an atmosphere of uncertainty for journalists and sources – and the role of mobilized citizens in obstructing journalists. The findings show that journalists respond by concealing their activities to preserve professional standards or by conforming to localized restrictions, contributing to our understanding of how state power is quietly contested or reproduced in authoritarian contexts.

Zoizner, Alon; Matthes, Jörg; Corbu, Nicoleta; de Vreese, Claes H.; Esser, Frank; Koc-Michalska, Karolina; Schemer, Christian; Theocharis, Yannis; Zilinsky, Jan

doi: 10.1177/19401612251342679pmid: N/A

With artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly shaping newsroom practices, scholars debate how citizens perceive news attributed to algorithms versus human journalists. Yet, little is known about these preferences in today’s polarized media environment, where partisan news consumption has surged. The current study explores this issue by providing a comprehensive and systematic examination of how citizens evaluate AI-attributed news compared to human-based news from like-minded and cross-cutting partisan sources. Using a preregistered conjoint experiment in the United States (N = 2,011) that mimics a high-choice media environment, we find that citizens evaluate AI-attributed news as negatively as cross-cutting news sources, both in terms of attitudes (perceived trustworthiness) and behavior (willingness to read the news story), while strongly preferring like-minded sources. These patterns remain stable across polarizing and non-polarizing issues and persist regardless of citizens’ preexisting attitudes toward AI, political extremity, and media trust. Our findings thus challenge more optimistic views about AI’s potential to facilitate exposure to diverse viewpoints. Moreover, they suggest that increased automation of news production faces both public mistrust and substantial reader resistance, raising concerns about the future viability of AI in journalism.

Kravets, Daria

doi: 10.1177/19401612251349018pmid: N/A

Prior research has demonstrated that the algorithms of the Kremlin-controlled search engine Yandex are biased toward the interests of Russia’s ruling elites. However, it has focused primarily on Yandex’s web and news search algorithms and largely neglected Yandex’s popular top-5 news recommender algorithm. Therefore, this study investigates the role of news embedded on Yandex’s homepage—on the side to its search functionality—in disseminating Russia’s propaganda to foreign audiences and tracks its evolution over time. To do so, I audited Yandex’s top-5 news algorithm in Belarus from 2010 to 2022. By analyzing 474,663 news headlines from Yandex’s homepage (yandex.by) in Belarus, I found that (1) on a monthly average, the majority (52.2%) of Yandex’s top-5 news in Belarus came from sources with explicit connections to Russia’s ruling elites, and (2) a substantial portion of the news was political, with the share of political news increasing over time. In addition, Yandex in Belarus (3) frequently featured news about Russia or Russian actors, which appeared almost exclusively in the default domestic top news section for Belarus as opposed to the top news happening in the world, and (4) experienced a notable decline in the presence of Kremlin-critical news sources, marked by the complete disappearance of Western and Russian opposition websites in late 2018–2019 and the disappearance of Belarusian opposition websites shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These findings demonstrate the gradual political appropriation of Yandex’s top-5 news algorithms by Russia’s ruling elites, marking Yandex as a propaganda tool of the Kremlin.