How Alternative Are Alternative Media? Analyzing Speaker and Topic Diversity in Mainstream and Alternative Online Outlets

Freudenthaler, Rainer; Weßler, Hartmut

doi:10.1080/21670811.2022.2117715

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…We found that Querdenken-related alternative media almost exclusively forwarded content from the far right or were part of the far right itself. We argue that this effect likely occurred because far-right alternative media focus on amplifying alternative media from their own media-sphere (Freudenthaler & Wessler, 2022). Future research could here analyze exactly which alternative and traditional media content is allowed by mobilizers in their channels or why the mobilizers seem to try to seal off their channel subscribers from traditional media.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

German Corona Protest Mobilizers on Telegram and Their Relations to the Far Right: A Network and Topic Analysis

Zehring

Domahidi

2023

Social Media + Society

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The Querdenken movement, the leading force behind German corona protests, is suspected of being a gateway to far-right attitudes due to radicalizing inward-oriented communication on Telegram. To investigate potential connections of this movement to the far right and alternative media—and to explore key topics of the Querdenken network over time—we analyzed 6,294,955 messages from 578 public Telegram channels via network analysis and structural topic modeling. This analysis revealed that Querdenken’s subcommunities preferably forward content from far-right and QAnon communities, while far-right and conspiracy theorist alternative media channels act as content distributors for the movement. Four main topics appeared in the Querdenken network with varying prevalence over time and across different communities: promotion, QAnon, right-wing populism, and COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Our results highlight potential directions for future research and practical implications, for example, that political decision makers should account for the increasing influence of the QAnon movement on Querdenken mobilizers’ Telegram activity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

German Corona Protest Mobilizers on Telegram and Their Relations to the Far Right: A Network and Topic Analysis

Zehring

Domahidi

2023

Social Media + Society

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“…For instance, Müller and Freudenthaler (2022) studied PANM in Germany and identified two clusters: core right-wing populist outlets focusing solely on typical right-wing and populist politics, and outlets with a more diverse agenda covering both right-wing populist partisan news and general interest topics. Speaker diversity, however, showed no significant differences between mainstream and PANM (Freudenthaler and Wessler, 2022). Mainstream media exhibited greater diversity in topics covered, political parties featured, and inclusion of expert voices, civil society members, and migrant communities.…”

Section: Content Of Alternative News Mediamentioning

confidence: 81%

Alternative News, Alternative Views? How Populist Alternative News Consumption Contributes to Political Attitudes During the 2021 Federal Election in Germany

Bach,

Areal,

Müller

2023

Preprint

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While recent work has studied the determinants of alternative news consumption, we know little about how alternative news exposure does, consequently, shape individuals’ political views. We tackle this question using three waves of panel survey data combined with detailed records of respondents’ online behavior collected in Germany during the 2021 federal election (2,112 participants). Focusing on a variety of key variables such as political, and media trust, populist attitudes, attitudes towards democracy and towards two salient political issues (immigration and climate change), we explore whether exposure to populist alternative news websites influences individuals’ self-reported political attitudes using within-between longitudinal regression models. Results indicate that changes in populist alternative news media consumption over time led to attitudinal change only for some variables (i.e., satisfaction with democracy and importance of environmental protection). Irrespective of longitudinal trajectories, we find that those who consume more alternative news have lower media and political trust, exhibit higher populist attitudes, sympathy to right-wing populist AfD party, and climate-skeptical issue positions. We interpret this as evidence that short-term media effects of alternative news consumption on individuals’ attitudes are limited. Yet, alternative news use is clearly associated with right-wing populist attitudes. We conclude that (1) the influence of alternative news media consumption may operate in the long run or (2) people with a specific set of attitudes might self-select into alternative news media consumption which could, then, contribute to the maintenance of their political convictions over time.

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“…Building on the operational definitions proposed by Holt et al (2019) and Heft et al (2020), we identify a start list of all alternative news media outlets in each of the four countries that (a) regularly publish digital content, (b) self-identify as and feature at least rudimentary features of a news outlet (e.g., an editorial structure), (c) express an explicit oppositional or anti-mainstream ambition in their self-description on their websites or social media profiles, and (d) can be classified as either “left-wing,” “right-wing,” or “anti-system.” To compile the start lists, we departed from existing lists of alternative news media in the four countries (Bachl, 2018; Blach-Ørsten & Mayerhöffer, 2021; Boberg et al, 2020; Freudenthaler & Wessler, 2022; Heft et al, 2020) and expanded these lists through consultations of country experts and additional desktop research. We moreover identified news outlets with a high audience overlap with the already identified outlets, using audience overlap measures provided by Alexa.com.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Source Heterophily In Online Alternat...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Did COVID-19 Blur Partisan Boundaries? A Comparison of Partisan Affinity and Source Heterophily in Online Alternative News-Sharing Networks Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Kristensen,

Henriksen,

Mayerhöffer

2023

Social Media + Society

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This study explores partisan and group heterophily within cross-platform online communities that share alternative news media content in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Austria. The analysis is related to the emergence of anti-systemic cross-partisan counter-publics in Europe that have gained momentum with the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent resistance against government restrictions. Comparing two periods (before and after the outbreak of COVID-19), we investigate whether these developments foster cross-partisan information sharing in online communities that form around right-wing, left-wing, and anti-systemic alternative news media content. Drawing on a network-analytical approach, we study networks formed around URL sharing of alternative news content across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, TikTok, YouTube, and VKontakte. Data include 30 million social media posts from January 2019 to September 2021. The results show that overall source heterophily in online alternative news networks increases slightly with the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly due to the increased proliferation of anti-system news. This increase is, however, not an expression of a more profound collapse of bi-partisan, left-right cleavages and is contingent on country contexts. Except for the time of the initial outbreak, the overall sharing of COVID-19-related content tends to increase rather than decrease partisan homophily. Finally, the results show that non-bi-partisan, anti-system media have had a significant effect on alternative media information ecosystems during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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How Alternative Are Alternative Media? Analyzing Speaker and Topic Diversity in Mainstream and Alternative Online Outlets

Cited by 9 publications

References 50 publications

German Corona Protest Mobilizers on Telegram and Their Relations to the Far Right: A Network and Topic Analysis

German Corona Protest Mobilizers on Telegram and Their Relations to the Far Right: A Network and Topic Analysis

Alternative News, Alternative Views? How Populist Alternative News Consumption Contributes to Political Attitudes During the 2021 Federal Election in Germany

Did COVID-19 Blur Partisan Boundaries? A Comparison of Partisan Affinity and Source Heterophily in Online Alternative News-Sharing Networks Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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