Misinformation does not only exist in the form of an informational threat, but has also trickled down to elite communication, public opinion, and media coverage as a label to describe our current information environment. The urgent problem we witness today is that the alarm on mis- and disinformation is sounding louder than ever, whereas we lack sufficient empirical evidence justifying these claims. News users respond by demonstrating high levels of uncertainty and risk perceptions when it comes to their ability to navigate their information ecology and distinguishing true from false content.

The main objective of this PhD project is to explore the causes of the discrepancy between perceived misinformation and salient threat frames on the one hand and the low observed misinformation exposure on the other hand. More specifically, we will investigate what types of threats citizens associate with misinformation, how such perceptions may vary between individuals or over time, and which roles media and elite discourses play regarding these threat perceptions using an array of both quantitative and qualitative methods.