IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v707y2023i1p109-124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Sticky Is Pink Slime? Assessing the Credibility of Deceptive Local Media

Author

Listed:
  • Joshua P. Darr

Abstract

The ongoing decline of local news not only deprives communities of important information, but also provides an opening for misinformation through so-called pink slime journalism: local media that poses as a news outlet and exploits the low cost of automating content to deceive readers. Is there an advantage to posing as a newspaper online? In this study, I use a survey experiment to assess how readers respond to the same headline delivered to them as a fake newspaper, a fake website, or a real television station. Respondents rated the fake local newspaper as less credible than a real television station or a fake local website, but they rated fake local websites as credibly as real local television. Readers’ preference for following local or national news and the timing of assessment moderate these effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Joshua P. Darr, 2023. "How Sticky Is Pink Slime? Assessing the Credibility of Deceptive Local Media," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 109-124, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:707:y:2023:i:1:p:109-124
    DOI: 10.1177/00027162231214696
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027162231214696
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00027162231214696?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kahn, Kim Fridkin & Kenney, Patrick J., 2002. "The Slant of the News: How Editorial Endorsements Influence Campaign Coverage and Citizens' Views of Candidates," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 96(2), pages 381-394, June.
    2. Peterson, Erik & Allamong, Maxwell B., 2022. "The Influence of Unknown Media on Public Opinion: Evidence from Local and Foreign News Sources," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 116(2), pages 719-733, May.
    3. Nikki Usher, 2023. "Delegitimizing Rural Public Health Departments: How Decaying Local News Ecologies, Misinformation, and Radicalization Undermine Community Storytelling Networks," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 90-108, May.
    4. Chong, Dennis & Druckman, James N., 2007. "Framing Public Opinion in Competitive Democracies," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 101(4), pages 637-655, November.
    5. Jason C. Coronel & Melissa C. Duff & David E. Warren & Kara D. Federmeier & Brian D. Gonsalves & Daniel Tranel & Neal J. Cohen, 2012. "Remembering and Voting: Theory and Evidence from Amnesic Patients," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(4), pages 837-848, October.
    6. Stephanie Edgerly & Yu Xu, 2023. "Local-Level Information-Seeking in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Repertoire Approach," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 172-188, May.
    7. Erik Peterson & Johanna Dunaway, 2023. "The New News Barons: Investment Ownership Reduces Newspaper Reporting Capacity," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 74-89, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ava Francesca Battocchio & Kjerstin Thorson & Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice & Marisa Smith & Yingying Chen & Stephanie Edgerly & Kelley Cotter & Hyesun Choung & Chuqing Dong & Moldir Moldagaliyeva & Christophe, 2023. "Who Will Tell the Stories of Health Inequities? Platform Challenges (and Opportunities) in Local Civic Information Infrastructure," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 144-171, May.
    2. Schnellenbach, Jan & Schubert, Christian, 2015. "Behavioral political economy: A survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 395-417.
    3. Kokil Jaidka & Sean Fischer & Yphtach Lelkes & Yifei Wang, 2023. "News Nationalization in a Digital Age: An Examination of How Local Protests Are Covered and Curated Online," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 189-207, May.
    4. Midha, Joshua, 2022. "The Cycle of Rule: Existential Risks, Continuity Of Governance, And Conflict-Based Preservation," SocArXiv vc7w9, Center for Open Science.
    5. Fung, Timothy K.F. & Choi, Doo Hun & Scheufele, Dietram A. & Shaw, Bret R., 2014. "Public opinion about biofuels: The interplay between party identification and risk/benefit perception," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 344-355.
    6. Larcinese, Valentino & Puglisi, Riccardo & Snyder, James M., 2011. "Partisan bias in economic news: Evidence on the agenda-setting behavior of U.S. newspapers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9), pages 1178-1189.
    7. Rogers, Todd & Nickerson, David W., 2013. "Can Inaccurate Beliefs about Incumbents be Changed? And Can Reframing Change Votes?," Working Paper Series rwp13-018, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    8. Hawkins, Christopher V. & Chia-Yuan, Yu, 2018. "Voter support for environmental bond referenda," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 193-200.
    9. Sam Schulhofer-Wohl & Miguel Garrido, 2013. "Do Newspapers Matter? Short-Run and Long-Run Evidence From the Closure of The Cincinnati Post," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 60-81, June.
    10. Nikki Usher, 2023. "Delegitimizing Rural Public Health Departments: How Decaying Local News Ecologies, Misinformation, and Radicalization Undermine Community Storytelling Networks," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 90-108, May.
    11. McComas, Katherine A. & Schuldt, Jonathon P. & Burge, Colleen A. & Roh, Sungjong, 2015. "Communicating about marine disease: The effects of message frames on policy support," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 45-52.
    12. Patricia D. Posey, 2023. "Information Inequality: How Race and Financial Access Reflect the Information Needs of Lower-Income Individuals," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 125-141, May.
    13. Stephanie Edgerly & Yu Xu, 2023. "Local-Level Information-Seeking in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Repertoire Approach," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 172-188, May.
    14. Han, Wenchen & Gao, Shun & Huang, Changwei & Yang, Junzhong, 2022. "Non-consensus states in circular opinion model with repulsive interaction," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 585(C).
    15. Grady, Christopher & Iannantuoni, Alice & Winters, Matthew S., 2021. "Influencing the means but not the ends: The role of entertainment-education interventions in development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    16. Vincenzo Carrieri & Maria De Paola & Francesca Gioia, 2021. "The health-economy trade-off during the Covid-19 pandemic: Communication matters," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-25, September.
    17. Waiphot Kulachai & Unisa Lerdtomornsakul & Patipol Homyamyen, 2023. "Factors Influencing Voting Decision: A Comprehensive Literature Review," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-16, August.
    18. Prendergast, Patrick & Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna & Lang, Corey, 2019. "The individual determinants of support for open space bond referendums," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 258-268.
    19. Suparna Chaudhry & Marc Dotson & Andrew Heiss, 2021. "Who Cares about Crackdowns? Exploring the Role of Trust in Individual Philanthropy," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S5), pages 45-58, July.
    20. Erika Franklin Fowler & Sarah E. Gollust, 2015. "The Content and Effect of Politicized Health Controversies," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 658(1), pages 155-171, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:707:y:2023:i:1:p:109-124. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.