Abstract

This study examines the political status and identities of sources and responsibility attributions of fake news in media articles covering the two recent Korean presidential elections, which saw the election of candidates of different political orientations. Results of quantitative content analysis for 746 stories from four nationwide news outlets showed that power ownership (ruling vs. opposing), rather than political orientation (conservative vs. progressive), better explained the variations in source appearance. In general, regardless of ideological orientation, sources associated with ruling parties blamed fake news more than those from opposing parties. The presidents and nominatives from the ruling party, as well as electives from opposing parties, were major sources blaming fake news. Experts, media, and the private sector were occasionally found to be sources blaming fake news from neutral zones. In terms of responsibility attribution for fake news, while unidentified targets blamed for fake news outnumbered any other identified objects, the president, nominatives, and electives were more frequently blamed when sources were from opposing parties. Theoretical and practical applications of the study results are then discussed to better understand the nature of fake news.