Affiliation:
1. University of Liverpool
2. Syracuse University
Abstract
Abstract
While the debate around the prevalence and potential effects of fake news has received
considerable scholarly attention, less research has focused on how political elites and pundits weaponized fake
news to delegitimize the media. In this study, we examine the rhetoric in 2020 U.S. presidential primary candidates
Facebook advertisements. Our analysis suggests that Republican and Democratic candidates alike attack and demean the news media on
several themes, including castigating them for malicious gatekeeping, for being out of touch with the views of the public, and for
being a bully. Only Trump routinely attacks the news media for trafficking in falsehoods and for colluding with other interests to
attack his candidacy. Our findings highlight the ways that candidates instrumentalize the news media for their own rhetorical
purposes; further constructing the news media as harmful to democracy.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Sociology and Political Science,History
Cited by
13 articles.
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