When Readers Do Not Fight Falsehood: An Exploration of Factors Influencing the Perceived Realism of False News on International Disputes

Abstract

This study examines the effects of misleading news—one type of false information presented by news media in the U.S. and China—in the context of international disputes. Through a web-based survey experiment, we tested how Chinese readers’ perception of false news is affected by the source of the news, the presence of visual elements, and general trust in mainstream Chinese media and that in mainstream U.S. media, as well as news literacy. Our results suggested false news reported by domestic media was perceived to better represent the reality of the covered issue than news presented by foreign media. This relationship was moderated by readers’ general trust in U.S. media and news literacy, which indicated media literacy training as a possible solution to counteract the effect of the news source. These findings not only advance current scholarship on misinformation by incorporating perspectives from non-Western media systems but also provide both foreign and domestic readers with timely and relevant methods to combat false information.