Keyword – fake news

Altheide, David L. – Merkovity, Norbert:

How Does Fear and Attention-Based Politics Help Donald Trump and Other Right-Wing Autocrats?

This paper is about how the campaigns of Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 transformed American politics and invigorated right-wing autocrats throughout the globe. Donald Trump took the politics of fear to a new level by promoting the fear of immigrants, especially Mexicans, while demonising Muslims and other groups. Many American citizens supported this fear with ballots even when protests started in the U.S. against hateful attacks or thousands died because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The relativisation of objective facts and the spread of false news have been included in the toolbox of autocratic leaders like Trump. We need to recognise the dynamics of this process and take decisive action against them. This study argues that after the Trump years, the widespread dissemination of media literacy should be promoted, in which academics should also be involved.

Keywords: attention-based politics, autocratic transition, autocratic politicians, Donald Trump, fake news, George Floyd, media logic, political communication, politics of fear, U.S. presidential election, U.S. media

Veszelszki, Ágnes – Falyuna, Nóra:

Using linguistic-argumentative tools to disclose pseudo-scientific contents

Pseudo-scientific contents can spread quickly and widely in the ever-changing information and media environment, which makes scientific analysis on identifying these contents particularly valuable. This paper presents the linguisticargumentative characteristics of pseudo-scientific contents spreading on the internet via three case studies (flat earth theory, anti-vaccination movement and parasitic infections), and offers some analytical tools to identify pseudoscientific and unreliable information. It concludes with a list of critical questions based on the relevant literature and the authors’ own teaching practices.The aim of this paper is to show that the analysis of the linguistic-argumentative characteristics of pseudo-scientific contents as a means of evaluating information credibility can contribute to the development of critical interpretative skills and communicational-pedagogical methodologies.

Keywords: argumentation techniques, critical skills, deception, digital communication, fake news, media awareness, pseudoscience, science communication, social media, terminology

Bódi, Jenő – Polyák, Gábor – Urbán, Ágnes:

The changing concept of fake news in public service news

In Hungary in 2020, after the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, government communication began to accuse critical media of spreading fake news. This typical tool of populist politics has taken on a new colour in Hungary: fake news accusations have also been used against opposition politicians. This analysis looks into content on fake news published over the past decade on Hirado.hu, the news site of the Hungarian public service media. It does not study fake news items that may be published there, but looks into what the concept 26 Bódi Jenő–Polyák Gábor–Urbán Ágnes means in the public discourse on the basis of the articles on Hirado.hu, and how the meaning of the term has evolved over time; for example, whether populist fake news accusations targeting the media and the domestic opposition appeared before 2020.

Keywords: content analysis, fake news, MTVA, news media, populism, public service media

Vicsek, Ferenc:

Mass media versus mass informedness

The Political Propaganda Indicator (PPI) measures abuses of information management, following the models of the Democracy Index created by Freedom House and of the Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International. It is a method for measuring how corrupted the information disseminated to the public is. The PPI shows what percentage of people accept news items spread by political propaganda as true, even though they are otherwise often difficult to verify as factually correct. It shows what share of the public has a false perception of reality because of propaganda and manipulated news services. It also shows what percentage of people fall prey to false news streams and, consequently, how many of them decide in free elections on the basis of misleading, deliberately false information or concealed information as compared to a situation in which there is a level informational playing field.

Keywords: brainwashing, fake news, information policy, informedness, media regulation, media system, propaganda, press freedom, social media