What Does ‘Lügenpresse’ Mean? Expressions of Media Distrust on PEGIDA’s Facebook Pages

Holt, Kristoffer; Haller, André

doi:10.7146/politik.v20i4.101534

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…3 When it comes to the use of references to alternative media, the picture is a bit different: the affirmative references (99%) dominate and hardly any contesting or neutral references could be found. This is true for both countries and is not surprising as most of these references relate to anti-system, anti-immigration or rightwing alternative media sites (Holt & Haller, 2017).…”

Section: How Pegida Relates To Other Mediamentioning

confidence: 84%

Paradoxical populism: how PEGIDA relates to mainstream and alternative media

Haller

Holt

2018

Information, Communication & Society

Self Cite

107

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The distrust of mainstream media expressed in the slogan 'the liar press' ('Lügenpresse') is often used as an example of a populist, anti-establishment attitude that is currently winning terrain throughout the Western world. In combination with the rise of alternative media (especially online), it poses a serious challenge for 'old media'. But how do those who are most suspicious and critical relate to the mainstream media in their own media channels? In this article, we have compared the official Facebook pages of the PEGIDA movement in Germany and Austria, in order to describe their use of references to traditional/mainstream and alternative media. The results indicate that references to mainstream and alternative media are distributed almost equally. Furthermore, when there are references to mainstream media, they are generally of an affirmative nature. These findings are relevant for the debate about cyberbalcanization, echo chambers, filter bubbles and the impact of alternative media on public discourse.

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Section: How Pegida Relates To Other Mediamentioning

confidence: 84%

Paradoxical populism: how PEGIDA relates to mainstream and alternative media

Haller

Holt

2018

Information, Communication & Society

Self Cite

107

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“…Calling the media 'fake news' can thus be seen as yet another characteristic element of populist political communication, indicating the news media as being 'pro-elite' and undermining opposition and journalism's role as the fourth estate (Krämer, 2018;McNair, 2017;Tambini, 2017). In recent years, studies have shown that populist media criticism is growing (Engesser et al, 2017;Figenschou & Ihlebaek, 2018;Holt & Haller, 2017) and now 'belongs to the standard repertoire of populist parties' (Esser, Stępińska, & Hopmann, 2016, p. 376).…”

Section: Where Does the Fake News Label Come From?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: a framework and research agenda

Egelhofer

Lecheler

2019

Annals of the International Communication Association

390

213

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Based on an extensive literature review, we suggest that 'fake news' alludes to two dimensions of political communication: the fake news genre (i.e. the deliberate creation of pseudojournalistic disinformation) and the fake news label (i.e. the instrumentalization of the term to delegitimize news media). While public worries about the use of the label by politicians are increasing, scholarly interest is heavily focused on the genre aspect of fake news. We connect the existing literature on fake news to related concepts from political communication and journalism research, present a theoretical framework to study fake news, and formulate a research agenda. Thus, we bring clarity to the discourse about fake news and suggest shifting scholarly attention to the neglected fake news label.

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“…As a further consequence of the conceptual debate, there are a plethora of terms employed to describe right-wing alternative online media, e.g., far-right media (Rauch, 2019), anti-elitist alternative media (Müller & Schulz, 2019), and populist alternative media (Holt & Haller, 2017). However, it is not always clear whether or not they refer to the same phenomenon.…”

Section: Conceptual and Terminological Obscuritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Uses Right-Wing Alternative Online Media? An Exploration of Audience Characteristics

Schulze

2020

PaG

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Accompanying the success of the radical right and right-wing populist movements, right-wing alternative online media have recently gained prominence and, to some extent, influence on public discourse and elections. The existing scholarship so far focuses primarily on the role of content and social media distribution and pays little attention to the audiences of right-wing alternative media, especially at a cross-national level and in the European context. The present paper addresses this gap by exploring the characteristics of the audiences of right-wing alternative online media. Based on a secondary data analysis of the 2019 Reuters Digital News Survey, this article presents a cross-national analysis of right-wing alternative media use in Northern and Central Europe. The results indicate a comparatively high prevalence of right-wing alternative online media in Sweden, whereas in Germany, Austria, and Finland, these news websites seem to be far less popular. With regard to audience characteristics, the strongest predictors of right-wing alternative online media use are political interest and a critical stance towards immigration, accompanied by a skeptical assessment of news quality, in general, and distrust, especially in public service broadcasting media. Additionally, the use of social media as a primary news source increases the likelihood of right-wing alternative news consumption. This corroborates the high relevance of social media platforms as distributors and multipliers of right-wing alternative news content. The findings suggest that right-wing alternative online media should not be underestimated as a peripheral phenomenon, but rather have to be considered influential factors for center-right to radical right-leaning politics and audiences in public discourse, with a high mobilizing and polarizing potential.

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What Does ‘Lügenpresse’ Mean? Expressions of Media Distrust on PEGIDA’s Facebook Pages

Cited by 23 publications

References 9 publications

Paradoxical populism: how PEGIDA relates to mainstream and alternative media

Paradoxical populism: how PEGIDA relates to mainstream and alternative media

Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: a framework and research agenda

Who Uses Right-Wing Alternative Online Media? An Exploration of Audience Characteristics

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