War on fake news? Media skepticism and exposure to politicians’ fake news accusations

This study investigates whether and to what extent individuals’ exposure to politicians’ accusations of ‘fake news’ was positively associated with their media skepticism and the role individuals’ partisanship played in the process. Very few studies have examined the effects of politicians’ fake news accusations on the public’s trust in the media. To fill this gap, a nationwide survey of 1,000 South Korean adults was conducted by one of the nation’s largest professional survey companies. The results showed that citizens’ exposure to politicians’ fake news accusations was positively associated with their media skepticism levels. However, individuals’ partisanship played a weak role. Notably, individuals with conservative political orientations were significantly more likely than their liberal counterparts to attend to fake news accusations made by conservative politicians. In contrast, liberal individuals did not exhibit a comparable tendency to attend to similar accusations made by liberal politicians. The study’s findings also indicate that individuals were more likely to perceive politicians’ fake news accusations as appropriate when made by politically aligned figures. Additionally, individuals exhibited higher levels of media skepticism only when they viewed the use of the term fake news as appropriate by attitude-consistent politicians.