Political Misinformation in the Digital Age during a Pandemic: Partisanship, Propaganda, and Democratic Decision-making

High quality information is critical for the functioning of democracy. Yet, in the era of growing prominence of social media and a high choice news media environment, it is increasingly difficult for citizens to judge the quality of the information they encounter in their daily lives. This Research Topic centers around two critical challenges for the scholarship on political misinformation. First, on the demand-side, questions remain around who is vulnerable to misinformation and how best to correct mistaken beliefs. Insights from psychology show that belief formation can serve accuracy motivations or be distorted by directional reasoning that is motivated by partisanship, ideology, or social identity, and the limits of one’s cognitive ability and media literacy. More research is needed to improve our understanding of these mechanisms, by identifying the antecedents, covariates, and moderators of misinformation and viable strategies to reduce the influence of false news in order to foster more accurate political reasoning. Second, on the supply-side, we lack an understanding of the mechanisms that generate and propagate political misinformation in the digital age. This is critical to understanding how to halt the spread of false news while increasing the circulation of news from credible sources. While more recent studies focus on social media, mainstream media also maintains an important role in the diffusion (and potential correction) of misinformation.

This open-access edited volume collects 13 articles tackling these challenges from various disciplinary perspectives and bringing together 59 internationally-renown misinformation scholars from around the world. The resulting e-book is freely available at this link.

Recommended citation: De Angelis, Andrea, Christina E Farhart, Eric Merkley, and Dominik A Stecula, eds. 2022. Political Misinformation in the Digital Age During a Pandemic: Partisanship, Propaganda, and Democratic Decision-Making. Frontiers Media SA.