Political communication¶
Political communication encompasses all forms of communication in political contexts: campaigns and elections, media coverage of politics, political advertising, debate, polarization in political discourse, public opinion formation, and how citizens engage with political information.
Central to understanding misinformation and fact-checking is the role of political polarization, partisan identity, and ideology in shaping how audiences process and resist corrections to false political claims.
Key research areas¶
- Polarization and partisanship: political identity and ideological alignment predict receptiveness to fact-checking and corrections.
- Campaign messaging: political campaigns employ strategic communication to shape beliefs and behavior; fact-checking of campaign claims faces special challenges (lower effectiveness during elections).
- Misinformation in elections: false and misleading claims about candidates, voting procedures, and election integrity are prevalent during election seasons and significantly influence voter behavior and beliefs.
- Media effects in politics: how media coverage, political advertising, and social media communication shape political attitudes and behavior.
Key papers¶
- Walter et al. (2020) — Fact-Checking: A Meta-Analysis of What Works and for Whom — synthesizes fact-checking research in political contexts; documents partisan asymmetries (Democrats/liberals more receptive to fact-checking than Republicans/conservatives; d = 0.43 vs. d = 0.17) and election-period attenuation effects (campaign-related fact-checking less effective than routine fact-checking; d = 0.24 vs. d = 0.38).
- Krause et al. (2020) — Fact-checking as risk communication — examines fact-checking as political communication strategy during COVID-19; analyzes trust barriers, partisan cleavages in risk perception, and why fact-checking lacks credibility.
- Sahly et al. (2019) — Social Media for Political Campaigns: An Examination of Trump's and Clinton's Frame Building and Its Effect on Audience Engagement — Analyzes frame building in 2016 presidential campaign across Twitter and Facebook; shows candidate-specific framing strategies (Trump: conflict + negative emotion; Clinton: morality + positive emotion) with differential engagement effects by platform
Connections¶
- Fact-checking and corrections — fact-checking is a political communication strategy.
- Misinformation — misinformation thrives in politicized contexts.
- Motivated reasoning — ideology drives motivated resistance to corrections in political contexts.