The Corrective Effect of Fact-Checking and Hostile Media Perceptions: A Three-Way Interaction Model between Social Media News Usage and Political Misperceptions

Abstract

With the proliferation of fake news and misinformation, fact-checking journalism is booming worldwide. However, whether its corrective effect is still valid and generalizable in daily news consumption settings outside the laboratory requires further investigation. In addition, some partisans argue that the content of fact-checking news has a partisan bias that makes it unfavorable to particular political figures or parties. This perceived bias is beginning to take root in some citizens' minds. Using data from a national survey during the 2022 Korean presidential election (N = 948), we explore whether hostile media perception theory extends to biased perceptions of fact-checking news and affects its corrective effect. The results of the three-way interaction model indicate that exposure to fact-checking news helps reduce citizens' belief in political misinformation when using social media news. However, perceived hostility to fact-checking news reduces the corrective effect of fact-checking. Specifically, those who are frequently exposed to fact-checking news but have a strong hostile media perception related to fact-checking news are less likely to assess misinformation more accurately than those with low perceived hostility when using social media news. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.