Jana Laura Egelhofer
Biographic Data
| ID | 3453463 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jana Laura Egelhofer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jana Laura |
| FAMILY NAME | Egelhofer |
| SIGNATURE | EGELHOFER J L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Vienna |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7090-8319 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 211 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Effects of Online Harassment of Scientists on Bystander Scientists
Scientists who share research on social media increasingly face harassment, which is visible to many bystanders, including other scientists. We report a preregistered experiment testing how exposure to such harassment affects bystander scientists ( N = 846). Drawing on social identity approaches, we argue that bystander scientists may react similarly to directly targeted scientists. Results show that exposure to harassment increases anxiety and r…
Walking the line: Balancing benefits of public engagement against the risks of harassment and attack
Harassment, political interference, and violence against science communication are on the rise and pose considerable challenges for scientists, journalists, communicators, and institutions. In this commentary, we — an international group of researchers and practitioners — reflect on how scientists, science communicators and their institutions can balance the increased demand for meaningful public engagement while also appropriately responding to …
The “bread and butter” of science: Understanding how scientists communicate uncertainties
Scientists increasingly experience that political contexts influence their science communication, affecting core aspects of their communication, such as the communication of uncertainty. Few studies suggest that uncertainty is increasingly being downplayed or omitted in science communication to the media and public, partially because scientists fear becoming political targets. However, to what extent that perception holds, and how scientists them…
Prosocial Behavior in the Context of Online Harassment of Scientists and Science Communicators: Designing and Implementing a Social Media Intervention in a Transdisciplinary Co-Creation Process
Harassment of scientists and science communicators is a growing concern, particularly on social media. While bystanders can help counter such harassment, few intervene. This research note presents the development, implementation, and evaluation of a social media intervention fostering bystander interventions, created through a transdisciplinary co-creation process with researchers, practitioners, influencers, and citizens. The resulting Instagram…
Beyond Credibility: The Effects of Different Forms of Visual Disinformation
Deepfakes dominate discussions about manipulated videos, but other forms of visual disinformation are more prevalent and less understood. Moreover, deception is often assessed through measuring credibility, overlooking cognitive effects like misperceptions and attitude changes. To address these gaps, an online experiment ( N = 802) examined visual disinformation’s effects on credibility, misperceptions, and perceptions of a politician. The study …
Short but Critical: How “Fake News” and “Anti-Elitist” Media Attacks Undermine Perceived Message Credibility on Social Media
Citizens increasingly turn to social media for information, where they often rely on cues to judge the credibility of news messages. In these environments, populist politicians use “fake news” and “anti-elitist” attacks to undermine the credibility of news messages. This article argues that to truly understand the impact of these criticism cues, one must simultaneously consider additional contextual cues as well as individual-level moderators. In…
How Politicians’ Attacks on Science Communication Influence Public Perceptions of Journalists and Scientists
In today’s “post-truth” world, concerns over political attacks on the legitimacy of expert knowledge and scientific facts are growing. Especially populist politicians frequently use their social media platforms to target science and journalism, arguing these are part of an “evil elite,” deliberately misleading the public by spreading disinformation. While this type of discourse is highly concerning, thus far, we lack empirical evidence on how the…
Populist attitudes and politicians’ disinformation accusations: Effects on perceptions of media and politicians
Populist politicians increasingly accuse opposing media of spreading disinformation or “fake news.” However, empirical research on the effects of these accusations is scarce. This survey experiment (N = 1,330) shows that disinformation accusations reduce audience members’ trust in the accused news outlet and perceived accuracy of the news message, while trust in the accusing politician is largely unaffected. However, only individuals with strong …
Beyond Anonymity: Network Affordances, Under Deindividuation, Improve Social Media Discussion Quality
The online sphere allows people to be personally anonymous while simultaneously being socially identifiable. Twitter users can use a pseudonym but signal allegiance to a political party in their profile (e.g., #MAGA). We explore the interplay of these two dimensions of anonymity on a custom-built social media platform that allowed us to examine the causal effects of personal and social anonymity on discussion quality. We find no support for the h…
Delegitimizing the media: Analyzing politicians’ media criticism on social media
A growing literature on the impact of “fake news“ accusations on legacy news outlets suggests that the use of this term is part of a much larger trend of increased and delegitimizing media criticism by political actors. However, so far, there is very little empirical evidence on how prevailing politicians’ delegitimizing media criticism really is and under which conditions it occurs. To fill these gaps, we present results of a content analysis of…
From Novelty to Normalization? How Journalists Use the Term “Fake News” in their Reporting
During recent years, worries about fake news have been a salient aspect of mediated debates. However, the ubiquitous and fuzzy usage of the term in news reporting has led more and more scholars and other public actors to call for its abandonment in public discourse altogether. Given this status as a controversial but arguably effective buzzword in news coverage, we know surprisingly little about exactly how journalists use the term in their repor…
Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: A Framework and Research Agenda
Based on an extensive literature review, we suggest that 'fake news' alludes to two dimensions of political communication: the fake news genre (i.e. the deliberate creation of pseudojournalistic disinformation) and the fake news label (i.e. the instrumentalization of the term to delegitimize news media). While public worries about the use of the label by politicians are increasing, scholarly interest is heavily focused on the genre aspect of fake…
Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: A Framework and Research Agenda
Based on an extensive literature review, we suggest that 'fake news' alludes to two dimensions of political communication: the fake news genre (i.e. the deliberate creation of pseudojournalistic disinformation) and the fake news label (i.e. the instrumentalization of the term to delegitimize news media). While public worries about the use of the label by politicians are increasing, scholarly interest is heavily focused on the genre aspect of fake…
Delegitimizing the media: Analyzing politicians’ media criticism on social media
A growing literature on the impact of “fake news“ accusations on legacy news outlets suggests that the use of this term is part of a much larger trend of increased and delegitimizing media criticism by political actors. However, so far, there is very little empirical evidence on how prevailing politicians’ delegitimizing media criticism really is and under which conditions it occurs. To fill these gaps, we present results of a content analysis of…
From Novelty to Normalization? How Journalists Use the Term “Fake News” in their Reporting
During recent years, worries about fake news have been a salient aspect of mediated debates. However, the ubiquitous and fuzzy usage of the term in news reporting has led more and more scholars and other public actors to call for its abandonment in public discourse altogether. Given this status as a controversial but arguably effective buzzword in news coverage, we know surprisingly little about exactly how journalists use the term in their repor…
Beyond Anonymity: Network Affordances, Under Deindividuation, Improve Social Media Discussion Quality
The online sphere allows people to be personally anonymous while simultaneously being socially identifiable. Twitter users can use a pseudonym but signal allegiance to a political party in their profile (e.g., #MAGA). We explore the interplay of these two dimensions of anonymity on a custom-built social media platform that allowed us to examine the causal effects of personal and social anonymity on discussion quality. We find no support for the h…
Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: A Framework and Research Agenda
Based on an extensive literature review, we suggest that 'fake news' alludes to two dimensions of political communication: the fake news genre (i.e. the deliberate creation of pseudojournalistic disinformation) and the fake news label (i.e. the instrumentalization of the term to delegitimize news media). While public worries about the use of the label by politicians are increasing, scholarly interest is heavily focused on the genre aspect of fake…
From Novelty to Normalization? How Journalists Use the Term “Fake News” in their Reporting
During recent years, worries about fake news have been a salient aspect of mediated debates. However, the ubiquitous and fuzzy usage of the term in news reporting has led more and more scholars and other public actors to call for its abandonment in public discourse altogether. Given this status as a controversial but arguably effective buzzword in news coverage, we know surprisingly little about exactly how journalists use the term in their repor…
Beyond Anonymity: Network Affordances, Under Deindividuation, Improve Social Media Discussion Quality
The online sphere allows people to be personally anonymous while simultaneously being socially identifiable. Twitter users can use a pseudonym but signal allegiance to a political party in their profile (e.g., #MAGA). We explore the interplay of these two dimensions of anonymity on a custom-built social media platform that allowed us to examine the causal effects of personal and social anonymity on discussion quality. We find no support for the h…
Delegitimizing the media: Analyzing politicians’ media criticism on social media
A growing literature on the impact of “fake news“ accusations on legacy news outlets suggests that the use of this term is part of a much larger trend of increased and delegitimizing media criticism by political actors. However, so far, there is very little empirical evidence on how prevailing politicians’ delegitimizing media criticism really is and under which conditions it occurs. To fill these gaps, we present results of a content analysis of…
Populist attitudes and politicians’ disinformation accusations: Effects on perceptions of media and politicians
Populist politicians increasingly accuse opposing media of spreading disinformation or “fake news.” However, empirical research on the effects of these accusations is scarce. This survey experiment (N = 1,330) shows that disinformation accusations reduce audience members’ trust in the accused news outlet and perceived accuracy of the news message, while trust in the accusing politician is largely unaffected. However, only individuals with strong …
Short but Critical: How “Fake News” and “Anti-Elitist” Media Attacks Undermine Perceived Message Credibility on Social Media
Citizens increasingly turn to social media for information, where they often rely on cues to judge the credibility of news messages. In these environments, populist politicians use “fake news” and “anti-elitist” attacks to undermine the credibility of news messages. This article argues that to truly understand the impact of these criticism cues, one must simultaneously consider additional contextual cues as well as individual-level moderators. In…
How Politicians’ Attacks on Science Communication Influence Public Perceptions of Journalists and Scientists
In today’s “post-truth” world, concerns over political attacks on the legitimacy of expert knowledge and scientific facts are growing. Especially populist politicians frequently use their social media platforms to target science and journalism, arguing these are part of an “evil elite,” deliberately misleading the public by spreading disinformation. While this type of discourse is highly concerning, thus far, we lack empirical evidence on how the…
Beyond Credibility: The Effects of Different Forms of Visual Disinformation
Deepfakes dominate discussions about manipulated videos, but other forms of visual disinformation are more prevalent and less understood. Moreover, deception is often assessed through measuring credibility, overlooking cognitive effects like misperceptions and attitude changes. To address these gaps, an online experiment ( N = 802) examined visual disinformation’s effects on credibility, misperceptions, and perceptions of a politician. The study …
The Effects of Online Harassment of Scientists on Bystander Scientists
Scientists who share research on social media increasingly face harassment, which is visible to many bystanders, including other scientists. We report a preregistered experiment testing how exposure to such harassment affects bystander scientists ( N = 846). Drawing on social identity approaches, we argue that bystander scientists may react similarly to directly targeted scientists. Results show that exposure to harassment increases anxiety and r…
Walking the line: Balancing benefits of public engagement against the risks of harassment and attack
Harassment, political interference, and violence against science communication are on the rise and pose considerable challenges for scientists, journalists, communicators, and institutions. In this commentary, we — an international group of researchers and practitioners — reflect on how scientists, science communicators and their institutions can balance the increased demand for meaningful public engagement while also appropriately responding to …
The “bread and butter” of science: Understanding how scientists communicate uncertainties
Scientists increasingly experience that political contexts influence their science communication, affecting core aspects of their communication, such as the communication of uncertainty. Few studies suggest that uncertainty is increasingly being downplayed or omitted in science communication to the media and public, partially because scientists fear becoming political targets. However, to what extent that perception holds, and how scientists them…
Prosocial Behavior in the Context of Online Harassment of Scientists and Science Communicators: Designing and Implementing a Social Media Intervention in a Transdisciplinary Co-Creation Process
Harassment of scientists and science communicators is a growing concern, particularly on social media. While bystanders can help counter such harassment, few intervene. This research note presents the development, implementation, and evaluation of a social media intervention fostering bystander interventions, created through a transdisciplinary co-creation process with researchers, practitioners, influencers, and citizens. The resulting Instagram…
Misinformation and Its Impacts (10 works) · Social media (8 works) · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Social Media and Politics (7 works) · Politics (6 works) · Disinformation (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Media studies (5 works) · Perception (5 works)