Conferring Resistance to Digital Disinformation: The Inoculating Influence of Procedural News Knowledge

Abstract

Despite the pervasiveness of digital disinformation in society, little is known about the individual characteristics that make some users more susceptible to erroneous information uptake than others, effectively dividing the media audience into prone and resistant groups. This study identifies and tests procedural news knowledge as a consequential civic resource with the capacity to inoculate audiences from disinformation and close this “resistance gap.” Engaging the persuasion knowledge model, the study utilizes data from two national surveys to demonstrate that possessing working knowledge of how the news media operate aids in the identification and effects of fabricated news and native advertising.

Acknowledgments

A previous iteration of this study was presented at the European Communication Research and Education Association’s Political Communication Section Interim Conference, Zurich, Switzerland, November 2017. We thank Sarah Krongard, Connor Harrison, Yiyan Zhang, Eric Getzoff, and Daniel Novak for their research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary materials

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. We considered this as a form of specialized knowledge that would require specific training in media education or research. By contrast, general knowledge about news practices and operations (i.e., PNK) typically develops informally through a process of media socialization and news exposure, without the need for specific training. Therefore, PNK is more likely to be evenly distributed throughout the population.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle A. Amazeen

Michelle A. Amazeen (Ph.D., Temple University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Mass Communication, Advertising, and Public Relations at Boston University. Her research examines recognition of and resistance to mediated persuasion and misinformation.

Erik P. Bucy

Erik P. Bucy (Ph.D., University of Maryland) is the Marshall and Sharleen Formby Regents Professor of Strategic Communication in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University. His research interests include visual and nonverbal analysis of political news, normative theories of media and democracy, and public opinion about the press.