“It’s A Very Small Country After All!” A Qualitative Perspective On The Reception Of Dis-/Misinformation In Belgium And Luxembourg

Wiard, Victor [UCL] Patriarche, Geoffroy [UCL] Chapellier, Daphné [UCL] Jacobs, Thomas [UCL]

A growing body of research on the reception of dis-/misinformation (Wagner & Boczkowski, 2019) demonstrates the importance of gaining a better understanding at how people make sense of the actors, content, processes and debates of dis-/misinformation. Building upon the concept of “folk theory” – understood as the articulation of experiences, beliefs, suppositions and/or, simplifications through which lay people generalise a certain view of the world (Nielsen, 2016) –, this paper focuses on how individuals make sense of the nexus between dis-/misinformation and democracy – i.e. “info-democratic disorders” -, with a specific focus on perceived cultural specificities or differences. To do so, our analysis stems from 30 semi-directive interviews with social media users who engage actively, and in various ways, with dis-/misinformation on social media. The sample spans across three communities – i.e. French-speaking Belgium, Flemish-speaking Belgium, and Luxembourg – and across the political and ideological spectrum. First, a diversity of folk theories and sub-theories of info-democratic disorders are identified, ranging from (among others) conceptualisations of mainstream media doing their job and only making minor mistakes, to different critiques of “poor journalism” and the claim that “official”/legacy media are participating in conspiracies led by economic and political elites to keep people in fear. Then, the study provides insights into linguistic and cultural variations of these folk theories. In doing so, it sheds light on how culturally situated beliefs inform individuals’ theorisations of info-democratic disorders and therefore provides a nuanced picture of the complex and multifaceted landscape of dis-/misinformation in the three communities.