Pandemic Populism: Facebook Pages of Alternative News Media and the\n Corona Crisis -- A Computational Content Analysis

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only had severe political, economic, and\nsocietal effects, it has also affected media and communication systems in\nunprecedented ways. While traditional journalistic media has tried to adapt to\nthe rapidly evolving situation, alternative news media on the Internet have\ngiven the events their own ideological spin. Such voices have been criticized\nfor furthering societal confusion and spreading potentially dangerous "fake\nnews" or conspiracy theories via social media and other online channels. The\ncurrent study analyzes the factual basis of such fears in an initial\ncomputational content analysis of alternative news media's output on Facebook\nduring the early Corona crisis, based on a large German data set from January\nto the second half of March 2020. Using computational content analysis,\nmethods, reach, interactions, actors, and topics of the messages were examined,\nas well as the use of fabricated news and conspiracy theories. The analysis\nrevealed that the alternative news media stay true to message patterns and\nideological foundations identified in prior research. While they do not spread\nobvious lies, they are predominantly sharing overly critical, even\nanti-systemic messages, opposing the view of the mainstream news media and the\npolitical establishment. With this pandemic populism, they contribute to a\ncontradictory, menacing, and distrusting worldview, as portrayed in detail in\nthis analysis.\n