ABSTRACT

This companion brings together a diverse set of concepts used to analyse dimensions of media disinformation and populism globally.

The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism explores how recent transformations in the architecture of public communication and particular attributes of the digital media ecology are conducive to the kind of polarised, anti-rational, post-fact, post-truth communication championed by populism. It is both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, consisting of contributions from both leading and emerging scholars analysing aspects of misinformation, disinformation, and populism across countries, political systems, and media systems. A global, comparative approach to the study of misinformation and populism is important in identifying common elements and characteristics, and these individual chapters cover a wide range of topics and themes, including fake news, mediatisation, propaganda, alternative media, immigration, science, and law-making, to name a few.

This companion is a key resource for academics, researchers, and policymakers as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of political communication, journalism, law, sociology, cultural studies, international politics and international relations.

chapter |12 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|13 pages

Media, disinformation, and populism

Problems and responses

part I|91 pages

Key concepts

chapter 4|10 pages

Rethinking mediatisation

Populism and the mediatisation of politics

chapter 5|12 pages

Media systems and misinformation

chapter 6|9 pages

Rewired propaganda

Propaganda, misinformation, and populism in the digital age

chapter 7|12 pages

Hate propaganda

chapter 9|9 pages

Disputes over or against reality?

Fine-graining the textures of post-truth politics

chapter 10|8 pages

Fake news

part II|90 pages

Media misinformation and disinformation

chapter 11|10 pages

The evolution of computational propaganda

Theories, debates, and innovation of the Russian model

chapter 12|11 pages

Polarisation and misinformation

chapter 14|9 pages

Media and the ‘alt-right’

chapter 15|9 pages

‘Listen to your gut’

How Fox News’s populist style changed the American public sphere and journalistic truth in the process

chapter 16|9 pages

Alternative online political media

Challenging or exacerbating populism and mis/disinformation?

chapter 18|10 pages

Lessons from an extraordinary year

Four heuristics for studying mediated misinformation in 2020 and beyond

chapter 19|11 pages

Right-wing populism, visual disinformation, and Brexit

From the UKIP ‘Breaking Point’ poster to the aftermath of the London Westminster bridge attack

part III|123 pages

The politics of misinformation and disinformation

chapter 24|15 pages

Military disinformation

A bodyguard of lies

chapter 28|10 pages

Conspiracy theories

Misinformed publics or wittingly believing false information?

chapter 29|11 pages

Corrupted infrastructures of meaning

Post-truth identities online

part IV|102 pages

Media and populism

chapter 31|10 pages

Populism in Africa

Personalistic leaders and the illusion of representation

chapter 34|10 pages

Perceived mis- and disinformation in a post-factual information setting

A conceptualisation and evidence from ten European countries

chapter 36|11 pages

Social media manipulation in Turkey

Actors, tactics, targets

chapter 39|15 pages

Disentangling polarisation and civic empowerment in the digital age

The role of filter bubbles and echo chambers in the rise of populism

part V|134 pages

Responses to misinformation, disinformation, and populism

chapter 42|11 pages

Singapore’s fake news law

Countering populists’ falsehoods and truth-making

chapter 43|10 pages

Debunking misinformation

chapter 44|9 pages

News literacy and misinformation

chapter 46|9 pages

People-powered correction

Fixing misinformation on social media

chapter 47|12 pages

Countering hate speech

chapter 50|10 pages

Responses to mis/disinformation

Practitioner experiences and approaches in low income settings

chapter 52|10 pages

Building connective democracy

Interdisciplinary solutions to the problem of polarisation