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Audience understandings of disinformation: navigating news media through a prism of pragmatic scepticism

Maria Kyriakidou Orcid Logo, Marina Morani Orcid Logo, Stephen Cushion Orcid Logo, Ceri Hughes Orcid Logo

Journalism, Volume: 24, Issue: 11, Pages: 2379 - 2396

Swansea University Author: Ceri Hughes Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/14648849221114244

Abstract

The content and effects of disinformation have become a focal point in communication studies over recent years. But how media audiences themselves interpret the meaning of disinformation and mitigate the risks it poses to their understanding of the world have remained largely understudied. This arti...

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Published in: Journalism
ISSN: 1464-8849 1741-3001
Published: SAGE Publications 2023
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60721
first_indexed 2022-08-03T11:57:03Z
last_indexed 2024-11-14T12:17:51Z
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spelling 2024-05-07T14:13:38.1268775 v2 60721 2022-08-03 Audience understandings of disinformation: navigating news media through a prism of pragmatic scepticism ea8460af971fe3e3aceb250c199a0f14 0009-0003-9537-9016 Ceri Hughes Ceri Hughes true false 2022-08-03 CACS The content and effects of disinformation have become a focal point in communication studies over recent years. But how media audiences themselves interpret the meaning of disinformation and mitigate the risks it poses to their understanding of the world have remained largely understudied. This article draws upon a UK-based focus group study that examines how people conceptualise disinformation, and the ways this informs their engagement with news media. Our findings revealed that common definitions of disinformation go beyond ‘fake news’ and conspiracy theories to include an array of phenomena, such as biased news, political spin and misrepresented information. Far from simply not trusting information sources or being passive recipients of disinformation, we argue that audiences have developed a pragmatic scepticism in their relationship with media across different platforms, which reflects a critical reading of news media both as texts and institutions. Journal Article Journalism 24 11 2379 2396 SAGE Publications 1464-8849 1741-3001 Disinformation, news audiences, media trust, media scepticism, focus groups 1 11 2023 2023-11-01 10.1177/14648849221114244 COLLEGE NANME Culture and Communications School COLLEGE CODE CACS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This was supported by Arts and Humanities Research Council, grant number (AH/ S012508/1). 2024-05-07T14:13:38.1268775 2022-08-03T12:55:13.8770672 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR Maria Kyriakidou 0000-0002-4053-5961 1 Marina Morani 0000-0002-7599-843x 2 Stephen Cushion 0000-0001-7164-8283 3 Ceri Hughes 0009-0003-9537-9016 4 60721__24827__cfd0b90050994e07a963ce95165a5e2a.pdf Audience understandings of disinfo.pdf 2022-08-03T12:56:53.1042775 Output 577066 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Audience understandings of disinformation: navigating news media through a prism of pragmatic scepticism
spellingShingle Audience understandings of disinformation: navigating news media through a prism of pragmatic scepticism
Ceri Hughes
title_short Audience understandings of disinformation: navigating news media through a prism of pragmatic scepticism
title_full Audience understandings of disinformation: navigating news media through a prism of pragmatic scepticism
title_fullStr Audience understandings of disinformation: navigating news media through a prism of pragmatic scepticism
title_full_unstemmed Audience understandings of disinformation: navigating news media through a prism of pragmatic scepticism
title_sort Audience understandings of disinformation: navigating news media through a prism of pragmatic scepticism
author_id_str_mv ea8460af971fe3e3aceb250c199a0f14
author_id_fullname_str_mv ea8460af971fe3e3aceb250c199a0f14_***_Ceri Hughes
author Ceri Hughes
author2 Maria Kyriakidou
Marina Morani
Stephen Cushion
Ceri Hughes
format Journal article
container_title Journalism
container_volume 24
container_issue 11
container_start_page 2379
publishDate 2023
institution Swansea University
issn 1464-8849
1741-3001
doi_str_mv 10.1177/14648849221114244
publisher SAGE Publications
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description The content and effects of disinformation have become a focal point in communication studies over recent years. But how media audiences themselves interpret the meaning of disinformation and mitigate the risks it poses to their understanding of the world have remained largely understudied. This article draws upon a UK-based focus group study that examines how people conceptualise disinformation, and the ways this informs their engagement with news media. Our findings revealed that common definitions of disinformation go beyond ‘fake news’ and conspiracy theories to include an array of phenomena, such as biased news, political spin and misrepresented information. Far from simply not trusting information sources or being passive recipients of disinformation, we argue that audiences have developed a pragmatic scepticism in their relationship with media across different platforms, which reflects a critical reading of news media both as texts and institutions.
published_date 2023-11-01T14:21:57Z
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