Political Information Use and Its Relationship to Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories Among the German Public-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Political Information Use and Its Relationship to Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories Among the German Public

Published:2021-12-14 Issue: Volume: Page:107769902110635
ISSN:1077-6990
Container-title:Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
language:en
Short-container-title:Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

Author:

Schemer Christian¹^ORCID,Ziegele Marc²,Schultz Tanjev¹^ORCID,Quiring Oliver¹,Jackob Nikolaus¹,Jakobs Ilka¹^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany

2. Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany

Abstract

This study investigates how exposure to different news sources, propensity to vote (PTV) for a party and demographics are related to belief in conspiracy theories drawing on three repeated cross-sectional surveys in Germany 2017–2019. Results show that frequent exposure to alternative news sites and video-sharing platforms increased conspiratorial beliefs. Frequency of exposure to the quality press, public service TV news, and news aggregators diminished beliefs in conspiracy theories. Exposure to TV news, legacy media online, tabloids, social media, and user comments was unrelated to such beliefs. PTV for far left and right parties increased conspiratorial beliefs, moderate party preference reduced them.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Communication

Link

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/10776990211063527

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