Is public broadcasting an amplifier or a gatekeeper of misinformation?
Is public broadcasting an amplifier or a gatekeeper of misinformation?
Sami Nenno’s article addressing this question was published in Information, Communication & Society. He collected fact-checking articles and matched them with subtitles from more than 1,000 news and talk show episodes on German public broadcasting television. The findings show that at least one claim qualifying as misinformation appears in over 12% of talk show episodes and about 2% of news programs.
Such claims are most often made by politicians. While they are sometimes challenged by moderators or other guests, in many cases they remain unaddressed. The misinformation ranges from narratives about migration “pull factors” to climate policy. However, the study finds no evidence that viral online misinformation is being transmitted on television. This suggests that although gatekeeping frequently fails, public broadcasting does not serve as an amplifier either. Instead, two distinct forms emerge: online misinformation, which is often outlandish and unrelated to current public discourse, and misinformation tied to high-profile political events that circulates both online and in traditional media.
The study underscores the need to broaden the scope of misinformation research and highlights the difficulty journalists face in countering false claims, particularly in live, contentious debates.
