The Alternative Truth Kept Hidden From Us
The Effects of Multimodal Disinformation Disseminated by Ordinary Citizens and Alternative Hyper-Partisan Media
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22010656 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Hameleers (0000-0002-8038-5005, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author), Darian Harff (0000-0002-4354-2198, KU Leuven), Desirée Schmuck (0000-0002-9492-6052, KU Leuven) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1351-1372 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-14 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Digital Journalism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2167-0811 • E-ISSN: 2167-082X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/21670811.2023.2210616 |
| OpenAlex | W4378085485 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 49 |
The affordances of social media potentially amplify the effects of disinformation by offering the possibility to present deceptive content and sources in credible and native ways. We investigate the effects of two aspects related to the dissemination and modality of digital disinformation: (In)authentic references to the ordinary people as sources of disinformation and the multimodal embedding of deceptive content. Using a pre-registered experiment in the United States and India (N = 1008), we found that adding decontextualized visuals to disinformation on climate change did not amplify its effects on credibility or user engagement. Mimicking ordinary citizen cues has a stronger effect than using an alternative hyper-partisan media source to communicate disinformation under certain conditions. Low levels of media trust and preferences for information from the vox populi moderate the effects of citizen-initiated disinformation, suggesting that disenchanted citizens who oppose established information may be most vulnerable to disinformation attacks from social bots or trolls
Credibility · Disinformation · Internet privacy · Political science · Social media · Source credibility · Computer Science · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Social Media and Politics
Fuelling climate change disinformation
Members of Congress and the pictures in their heads
Credibility as a Double-Edged Sword
It Sounds Important
Does YouTube shape conspiracy mentality? A three-way interaction effect of partisan YouTube channel use, like-Minded discussion, and interest in politics
The Role of the Term “Fake News” in U.S. Alternative Media
Data in the Context of Misinformation
Understanding the Effects of Visual Misinformation
Conceptualisations and analyses of distrust and mistrust in news media
A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Beyond Breitbart
Key Dimensions of Alternative News Media
Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It
Assembling the Networks and Audiences of Disinformation
Effects of Disinformation Using Deepfake
Responses to Social Media Influencers’ Misinformation about Covid-19
Visual Mis- and Disinformation, Social Media, and Democracy
It’s us against them
Too good to be true, too good not to share
The effect of misinformation and inoculation
A Clearer Picture
Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them
Fake News and The Economy of Emotions
Measuring the Concept of Credibility
Disinformation and Conspiracy Theories in the Age of Covid-19
Beyond (Mis)Representation
The Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
Untrustworthy News and the Media as “Enemy of the People?” How a Populist Worldview Shapes Recipients’ Attitudes toward the Media
The Appeal of Media Populism
When is Disinformation (In)Credible? Experimental Findings on Message Characteristics and Individual Differences
Truth is What Happens to News
Redefining virality in less broad strokes
Seeing Is Believing
Deception as a Bridging Concept in the Study of Disinformation, Misinformation, and Misperceptions
Measuring Populist Attitudes on Three Dimensions
The disinformation order
Evidence for Implicit Evaluative In-Group Bias
Regenerating Journalism
Defining Misinformation and Understanding its Bounded Nature
Mistrust, Disinforming News, and Vote Choice
A Picture Paints a Thousand Lies? The Effects and Mechanisms of Multimodal Disinformation and Rebuttals Disseminated via Social Media
Disinformation as Political Communication
Disinformation by Design
Heuristic processing can bias systematic processing
Alternative media for a populist audience? Exploring political and media use predictors of exposure to Breitbart, Sputnik, and Co
Resilience to Online Disinformation
Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election
Truth-Default Theory (TDT)
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |