Understanding the Intersections between Polarisation and Disinformation in Spain, France, and the UK

The next speaker in this IAMCR 2023 session is Laura Teruel Rodríguez, with a paper on the intersection of polarisation and disinformation. Disinformation (and other forms of information disorder) has played a considerable part in driving polarisation, especially in contexts such as the Brexit vote or the election of Donald Trump as US President; the project is interested, therefore, in the correlations between polarisation and disinformation in the European quality press since 2017.

Newspapers chosen were major publications from France, Spain, and the UK, and some 286 relevant articles were coded for their framing. 45% of the sample were from Spain, while only 20% of articles came from France. The most published pieces came from 2020, probably due to COVID-19 (but perhaps also due to the US election that year?). Most articles (52%) took an international perspective, with 31% focussing on the US and 18% focussing on the Americas as a whole.

The majority of articles refer literally to political polarisation; in the Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro, and Le Monde the focus is strongly on issue polarisation, while in Spain and in The Guardian the focus is on party polarisation. Politicians and social media are seen as the major culprits for polarisation.

Fighting polarisation is also seen as a fight against poor journalism and ‘fake news’. Media must provide quality content, collaborate on improving the quality of public discourse, and engage with citizens and political actors in doing so. Disinformation is in fact a more prominent and more urgent problem for the press than polarisation, with the situation in the US, Brazil, and Russia highlighted as especially problematic. In Spain, this is also linked to COVID-19; in the UK, to public service media; in France, to social media.

The importance of these issues has not changed since 2017. Political polarisation (i.e. between parties) remains seen as the key problem; and this is especially pronounced in Spain. Disinformation is also seen as a contemporary weapon, and there is a strong international dimension to this. Quality journalism is seen as a key response against these problems.