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News on Fake News: Logics of Media Discourses on Disinformation
Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), School of Arts and Communication (K3).ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2272-7174
2023 (English)In: Journal of Language and Politics, ISSN 1569-2159, E-ISSN 1569-9862, Vol. 22, no 1, p. 1-21Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article presents a qualitative study of media discourses around fake news, examining 288 news articles from two national elections in Denmark in 2019. It explores how news media construct fake news as a national security threat and how journalists articulate their own role in relation to this threat. The study draws on discourse theory and the concept of logics to critically map how particular meaning ascriptions and subject positions come to dominate over others, finding five logics undergirding media discourses: (1) a logic of anticipation; (2) a logic of exteriorisation; (3) a logic of technologisation; (4) a logic of securitisation; and (5) a logic of pre-legitimation. The article concludes that fake news is constructed as an ‘ultimate other’ in Danish media discourses, potentially contributing to blind spots in both public perception and political solutions. This resonates with previous studies from other geo-political contexts, calling for further cross-national research.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2023. Vol. 22, no 1, p. 1-21
Keywords [en]
journalism, European Parliament, election reporting, discourse theory, news, disinformation, Denmark, fake news, disinformation, misinformation
National Category
Communication Studies Media and Communication Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-55475DOI: 10.1075/jlp.22020.farISI: 000922976800001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85147651407OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-55475DiVA, id: diva2:1705464
Available from: 2022-10-24 Created: 2022-10-24 Last updated: 2025-02-11Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. This Is Not Real News: Discursive Struggles over Fake News, Journalism, and Democracy
Open this publication in new window or tab >>This Is Not Real News: Discursive Struggles over Fake News, Journalism, and Democracy
2023 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Fake news has attracted significant global attention and contestation in recent years. This PhD thesis explores the explosive and oftentimes contradictory rise of fake news and dives into the discursive struggles around journalism, politics, digital media, and liberal democracy that have emerged in its wake. Through a series of interrelated publications – spanning more than five years of research – the thesis examines how and with what consequences journalistic and political actors articulate and dispute the very meaning of fake news. Through a careful and critical mapping of the discursive signification of fake news, the thesis does not only situate the issue in wider political and historical contexts; it also draws out and reflects upon its implications for the future of liberal democracies. 

Deploying detailed empirical investigations based on news content, textual analysis, and qualitative interviews, the thesis sheds light on discursive struggles around fake news within a number of distinct socio-political contexts. It dives into cases from the US and UK, where fake news first rose to prominence in 2016, as well as from Denmark, where fake news has increasingly become a topic of journalistic and political concern. 

Drawing on the ontological and conceptual framework of discourse theory, the thesis demonstrates how fake news has come to function as a floating signifier; it is a deeply political concept mobilised within conflicting hegemonic projects with fundamentally different forms of meaning. Having done so, the thesis goes on to show that fake news has not only become central in debates around lies and falsehoods but also for conflicting visions about what ‘politics,’ ‘journalism,’ and ‘liberal democracy’ fundamentally are and ought to be. Indeed, the core argument levelled in this thesis is that fake news has come to function as a prism through which wider struggles over liberal democracy and human co-habitation have become visible at a time of growing political instability. 

Taken together, the findings offered by the thesis contribute to the field of media and communication studies by addressing a pertinent gap regarding the discursive signification of fake news. Connecting the rise of fake news to structural transformations at the heart of both contemporary media landscapes and liberal democracy, the thesis moves beyond formalistic conceptions of fake news and into the highly conflictual terrain surrounding the concept.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö: Malmö University Press, 2023. p. 223
Series
School of Arts and Communication Dissertation Series ; 8
Keywords
Fake news, disinformation, misinformation, journalism, democracy, digital media, discourse theory, metajournalistic discourse
National Category
Media and Communications
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-58996 (URN)10.24834/isbn.9789178773169 (DOI)978-91-7877-315-2 (ISBN)978-91-7877-316-9 (ISBN)
Public defence
2023-06-02, Auditorium C, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1, 211 19, Malmö, Sweden, Malmö, 09:34 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2023-04-11 Created: 2023-03-30 Last updated: 2025-02-07Bibliographically approved

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Farkas, Johan

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