The Politics of Mis/Disinformation: Ideological Asymmetries in Media Practice and Process

• In Event: Disassembling Mis/Disinformation, Reassembling Democracy: Theory, Practice, and Possibilities

Abstract

This conceptual paper draws from media studies scholarship to unearth the politics of mis/disinformation discourses and discuss their educational implications.
Following Donald Trump’s 2016 election, a popular narrative formed, suggesting that the problem of mis/disinformation was born of two interlocking phenomena: (1) dispersed digital media environments, like social media platforms, had eclipsed traditional, gatekept media in their influence, allowing for the unprecedented spread of false information (Shearer & Gottfried, 2017), and (2) media audiences lacked the skills to verify claims circulated online (Gunther et al., 2018). Across educational subfields—typically under the banner of civic, digital, media, or information literacy—researchers sought to ameliorate this problem by identifying and redressing the literacy skills or cognitive dispositions that individual students need to effectively verify information and forestall the spread of mis/disinformation (Barzilai & Chinn, 2020).
However, emerging media scholarship has begun to trouble the popular narrative underlying our curricular responses. On the one hand, “active audience” studies demonstrate how media audiences differentially decode and verify mediated messages (Marwick, 2018). For instance, in an ethnographic study of far-right groups, Tripodi (2022) found that participants did not lack information discernment skills; rather, they engaged in a sophisticated form of cross-document, close reading to verify political claims and, in turn, to sustain their political ideologies. On the other hand, scholars have also demonstrated how political groups are differentially targeted by mis/disinformation, with the conservative media ecosystem far outstripping centrist and left-wing media in their media manipulation tactics (Benkler et al., 2018). For instance, numerous studies document “trading up the chain” (Holiday, 2012) as a common tactic wherein misleading or demonstrably false claims that originate in obscure, far-right websites are selectively amplified by mainstream, right-wing media outlets (e.g. Fox News), and media personalities, including Donald Trump himself. This provides stories with the repetition and sourcing required to appear true, despite their dubious origins (Marwick & Lewis, 2017; Tripodi et al., 2024).
Drawing from this work, this paper suggests that both contemporary media practices (i.e., how individuals verify claims on the internet to build beliefs and disseminate information) and media processes (i.e., how information spreads through the media ecosystem) are characterized by ideological asymmetries between conservative and liberal interests. Consequently, we argue that the problem of mis/disinformation is less one of universally definable deficiencies that can be remedied by the broad application of curricular programs, but is rather one of politics. This is a perplexing dynamic for education. As an applied field, we are tasked with identifying practices that can have broad influence in public institutions—making apolitical literacy deficiencies an easier problem to tackle than sociocultural practices deeply tied to partisan politics. However, we argue that failing to acknowledge the political character of mis/disinformation obscures its true nature from our students, directing them toward understandings that are, at best, partial, and, at worst, themselves misinformed. We conclude by offering the groundwork for alternative approaches to educational research and practice that directly engage with the politics of mis/disinformation.

Authors

• Alexandra Thrall, Baylor University

• T. Philip Nichols, Baylor University