TY - JOUR
T1 - Audience constructions of fake news in Australian media representations of asylum seekers: A critical discourse perspective
AU - HAW, Ashleigh
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, undertaken at the University of Western Australia.
Publisher Copyright:
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
PY - 2021/9/20
Y1 - 2021/9/20
N2 - In recent years, the term 'fake news' has gained considerable traction in scholarly and public discourse. While fake news is increasingly attributed to declining audience trust, we know little about how publics are making sense of the concept. To address this, I discuss findings arising from interviews with 24 Western Australian media consumers who offered their perspectives on Australian news coverage of asylum seekers. Combining Critical Discourse methods with Rhetorical Analysis, findings highlight how participants evaluated misinformation and disinformation about asylum seekers and in particular, how some adopted a discourse of 'fake news' to delegitimise perspectives that oppose their own stance. Discussed alongside Egelhofer and Lecheler's (2019) theoretical framework of the fake news 'label', I argue that by understanding how audiences discussed fake news before the concept rose to prominence in 2016, scholars can meaningfully examine discursive patterns within social constructions of fake news across numerous contemporary and historical contexts.
AB - In recent years, the term 'fake news' has gained considerable traction in scholarly and public discourse. While fake news is increasingly attributed to declining audience trust, we know little about how publics are making sense of the concept. To address this, I discuss findings arising from interviews with 24 Western Australian media consumers who offered their perspectives on Australian news coverage of asylum seekers. Combining Critical Discourse methods with Rhetorical Analysis, findings highlight how participants evaluated misinformation and disinformation about asylum seekers and in particular, how some adopted a discourse of 'fake news' to delegitimise perspectives that oppose their own stance. Discussed alongside Egelhofer and Lecheler's (2019) theoretical framework of the fake news 'label', I argue that by understanding how audiences discussed fake news before the concept rose to prominence in 2016, scholars can meaningfully examine discursive patterns within social constructions of fake news across numerous contemporary and historical contexts.
KW - Asylum seekers
KW - Audiences
KW - Australia
KW - Critical discourse analysis
KW - Fake news
KW - Media
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115661241&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1075/jlp.21028.haw
DO - 10.1075/jlp.21028.haw
M3 - Review article
SN - 1569-2159
VL - 20
SP - 761
EP - 782
JO - Journal of Language and Politics
JF - Journal of Language and Politics
IS - 5
ER -