Political Bias
In âYou are fake news: political bias in perceptions of fake newsâ it focuses on a study that was created to show what liberals and conservatives perceive what fake news is. They brought up the term âthe fake news effectâ which is a psychological bias where well-known liberal outlets (e.g. CNN) are described as âfake newsâ by conservatives and, in turn, well-known conservative outlets (e.g. Fox News) are described as âfake newsâ by liberals. Throughout the experiment, they found that political bias occurs in both parts of the parties and that liberals and conservatives have media bias. In other words, they choose where to read their news and whether to believe it or not. This is because people use their morals as a motive to believe whether the news is fake or not.Â
Although the fake news effect occurs in both parties, the effect appears to be more pronounced in conservative audiences. In fact, conservatives (75%) think CNN is fake news than liberals think Fox News (59%) is fake news. Another key idea is that conservatives use the term âfake newsâ to discredit mainstream media as a whole whereas liberals use âfake newsâ around politics.Â
Citation:Â Â van der Linden, Sander, et al. âYou Are Fake News: Political Bias in Perceptions of Fake News.â Media, Culture & Society, vol. 42, no. 3, Apr. 2020, pp. 460â470, doi:10.1177/0163443720906992.