Political Information Use and Its Relationship to Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories Among the German Public

Schemer, Christian; Ziegele, Marc; Schultz, Tanjev; Quiring, Oliver; Jackob, Nikolaus; Jakobs, Ilka

doi:10.1177/10776990211063527

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Also, in line with previous studies from the U.S. (Hollander, 2018;Stempel et al, 2007), the use of local newspapers is negatively associated with the belief in CT. Contrary to extant research, we did not find that the use of public broadcast television (Kull et al, 2003;Schemer et al, 2021) and nationwide newspapers (Hollander, 2018;Stempel et al, 2007) as information sources are associated with higher resilience to CT. How can this pattern be explained? CT particularly appeal to people who feel detached and excluded from society (Rose, 2017).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Deprived, Radical, Alternatively Informed

Ziegele¹,

Resing²,

Frehmann³

et al. 2022

EJHC

Self Cite

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The Covid-19 pandemic was accompanied by a massive increase of the supply and demand for pandemic-related information. Similarly, conspiracy theories about the origins and functions of the Covid-19 virus flourished during the early stages of the pandemic. The present study draws on a nationally representative sample of the German population aged 18+ (N = 1,207) to investigate factors that are associated with people’s susceptibility to believe in such theories. We draw on research from sociology, political science, and communication to predict that factors related to relative deprivation, political radicalism, and the consumption of alternative news on websites, video platforms, Social Network Sites, and messenger services are associated with an increased belief in Covid-19 conspiracy theories. The data largely supports our assumptions. Additionally, we show that the strength of belief in Covid-19 conspiracy theories is associated with reduced vaccination intentions, which suggests detrimental real-world health consequences of such a belief.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Deprived, Radical, Alternatively Informed

Ziegele¹,

Resing²,

Frehmann³

et al. 2022

EJHC

Self Cite

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“…The majority of the mentioned studies consistently find that consumers of alternative news media exhibit a higher level of interest in politics compared to non-consumers. Additionally, links between authoritarianism and conspiracy mentality have been established (Frischlich et al, 2021(Frischlich et al, , 2022Hetzel et al, 2023;Schemer et al, 2022). Individuals with higher authoritarian tendencies perceive "distorted" news as more credible, and users of PANM display greater susceptibility to conspiracy beliefs, particularly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Correlates Of Exposure To Alternative News Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative News, Alternative Views? How Populist Alternative News Consumption Contributes to Political Attitudes During the 2021 Federal Election in Germany

Bach,

Areal,

Müller

2023

Preprint

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While recent work has studied the determinants of alternative news consumption, we know little about how alternative news exposure does, consequently, shape individuals’ political views. We tackle this question using three waves of panel survey data combined with detailed records of respondents’ online behavior collected in Germany during the 2021 federal election (2,112 participants). Focusing on a variety of key variables such as political, and media trust, populist attitudes, attitudes towards democracy and towards two salient political issues (immigration and climate change), we explore whether exposure to populist alternative news websites influences individuals’ self-reported political attitudes using within-between longitudinal regression models. Results indicate that changes in populist alternative news media consumption over time led to attitudinal change only for some variables (i.e., satisfaction with democracy and importance of environmental protection). Irrespective of longitudinal trajectories, we find that those who consume more alternative news have lower media and political trust, exhibit higher populist attitudes, sympathy to right-wing populist AfD party, and climate-skeptical issue positions. We interpret this as evidence that short-term media effects of alternative news consumption on individuals’ attitudes are limited. Yet, alternative news use is clearly associated with right-wing populist attitudes. We conclude that (1) the influence of alternative news media consumption may operate in the long run or (2) people with a specific set of attitudes might self-select into alternative news media consumption which could, then, contribute to the maintenance of their political convictions over time.

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“…Despite the public debate, there is a lack of evidence on how the use of different media channels and sources is related to conspiracy beliefs in the German context. The few existing studies (e.g., Jensen et al, 2021;Schemer et al, 2021;Theocharis et al, 2021) produce different results and mostly neglect alternative influencers and Telegram. Thus, an investigation of how COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs relate to the use of relevant media channels and sources in a German sample is necessary.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, exposure to alternative sources and social media correlate in Germany?

Hetzel¹,

Klawier²,

Prochazka³

et al. 2022

SCM

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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy beliefs about the virus spread quickly. Using an online-representative survey in Germany, this study examines the relationship between such conspiracy beliefs and media use with special regard to alternative media and influencers as well as social media. Instead of aggregating different social media platforms, this study identifies differences between them. The results show that COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs are positively associated with the use of Telegram. The use of alternative media, Facebook, and YouTube shows only very weak positive associations. On the other hand, exposure to journalistic media is negatively associated with conspiracy beliefs. Causalities and implications of these findings are discussed.

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Political Information Use and Its Relationship to Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories Among the German Public

Cited by 5 publications

References 68 publications

Deprived, Radical, Alternatively Informed

Deprived, Radical, Alternatively Informed

Alternative News, Alternative Views? How Populist Alternative News Consumption Contributes to Political Attitudes During the 2021 Federal Election in Germany

How do COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, exposure to alternative sources and social media correlate in Germany?

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