Does alternative news media inform or misinform voters during election campaigns?

Abstract

A growing body of literature has studied the audiences and effects of alternative media use. We contribute by examining how such usage shapes political knowledge during election campaigns. Given their partisan orientation, lack of professional verification, and often provocative style, alternative media are found to produce and circulate misinformation, even as their users are often politically engaged, active news consumers. We ask whether alternative media inform rather than misinform citizens during election campaigns. Adopting a two-dimensional conception of political knowledge, we examine both surveillance knowledge and confidence in that knowledge – along with misinformation understood as the combination of the two. Utilizing individual-level panel data from Norway, our findings suggest that alternative news use is not associated with being better or worse informed, but with being more confident in one’s political knowledge. We discuss how these effects may differ in more polarized or lower-quality information environments.