ERIC Number: EJ1350902
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 11
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1134-3478
EISSN: EISSN-1988-3293
Rhetoric of Parliamentary Disinformation on Twitter
Comunicar: Media Education Research Journal, v30 n72 p47-57 2022
Democracy is based on individuals' ability to give their opinions freely. To do this, they must have access to a multitude of reliable information sources (Dahl, 1998), and this greatly depends on the characteristics of their media environments. Today, one of the main issues individuals face is the significant amount of disinformation circulating through social networks. This study focuses on parliamentary disinformation. It examines how parliamentarians contribute to generating information disorder (Wardle & Derakhshan, 2017) in the digital public space. Through an exploratory content analysis--a descriptive content analysis of 2,307 messages posted on Twitter accounts of parliamentary spokespeople and representatives of the main list of each political party in the Spanish Lower House of Parliament--we explore disinformation rhetoric. The results allow us to conclude that, while the volume of messages shared by parliamentarians on issues susceptible to disinformation is relatively low (14% of tweets), both the themes of the tweets (COVID-19, sex-based violence, migrants or LGBTI), as well as their tone and argumentative and discursive lines, contribute to generating distrust through institutional criticism or their peers. The study deepens current knowledge of the disinformation generated by political elites, key agents of the construction of polarising narratives.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Social Media, Political Attitudes, Content Analysis, Democracy, Information Sources, Mass Media, Social Networks, Public Officials, Computer Mediated Communication, Legislators, Deception, COVID-19, Pandemics, Gender Differences, Violence, Immigrants, LGBTQ People, Persuasive Discourse, Trust (Psychology), Discourse Analysis, Criticism, Minority Groups
Grupo Comunicar Ediciones. Marina 8, Atico B - 21001 Huelva, Spain. Tel: 34-959-248480; e-mail: info@grupocomunicar.com; Web site: https://www.revistacomunicar.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A