Post-truth propaganda: heuristic processing of political fake news on Facebook during the 2016 U.S. presidential election

Abstract

During the 2016 United States presidential election, social media was a popular source of political news. In the three months preceding the election day, there was an exponential increase in the propagation of fake political news stories on social media. Using propaganda theory as the situating framework, this study conducts a qualitative textual analysis of 18 of the most popular of these fake news stories. The results reveal how propagandist elements were used to mislead readers, likely activating heuristic rather than systematic psychological information processing. We propose for further testing a theoretical model of heuristic processing of political fake news that may help explain how such news compels belief.