Polarization, Partisanship and Junk News Consumption over Social Media in the US

TL;DR

This study analyzes how different social media user groups in the US consume junk news, revealing that Trump supporters and extreme right pages circulate the most and widest range of such content on Twitter and Facebook.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of junk news consumption patterns across social media platforms and ideological groups, highlighting the prominence of Trump supporters and extreme right pages.

Findings

Trump supporters share the widest range of junk news on Twitter.

Extreme right Facebook pages circulate more junk news than other groups.

Twitter audiences share a broader range of junk news sources than Facebook audiences.

Abstract

What kinds of social media users read junk news? We examine the distribution of the most significant sources of junk news in the three months before President Donald Trump first State of the Union Address. Drawing on a list of sources that consistently publish political news and information that is extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, masked commentary, fake news and other forms of junk news, we find that the distribution of such content is unevenly spread across the ideological spectrum. We demonstrate that (1) on Twitter, a network of Trump supporters shares the widest range of known junk news sources and circulates more junk news than all the other groups put together; (2) on Facebook, extreme hard right pages, distinct from Republican pages, share the widest range of known junk news sources and circulate more junk news than all the other audiences put together; (3) on average, the audiences for junk news on Twitter share a wider range of known junk news sources than audiences on Facebook public pages.