Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 22:1 (2023) ► pp.1–21

News on fake news

Logics of media discourses on disinformation

ORCID logo | Malmö University
This article presents a qualitative study of media discourses around fake news, examining 288 news articles from two national elections in Denmark in 2019. It explores how news media construct fake news as a national security threat and how journalists articulate their own role in relation to this threat. The study draws on discourse theory and the concept of logics to critically map how particular meaning ascriptions and subject positions come to dominate over others, finding five logics undergirding media discourses: (1) a logic of anticipation; (2) a logic of exteriorisation; (3) a logic of technologisation; (4) a logic of securitisation; and (5) a logic of pre-legitimation. The article concludes that fake news is constructed as an ‘ultimate other’ in Danish media discourses, potentially contributing to blind spots in both public perception and political solutions. This resonates with previous studies from other geo-political contexts, calling for further cross-national research.
Keywords: fake news, disinformation, journalism, discourse theory, election reporting, Denmark, European Parliament
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Addressing a gap in scholarship on fake news
  • 3.Data collection and analysis
  • 4.Theoretical framework: Discourse Theory and logics
  • 5.The Danish media landscape and the threat of fake news
  • 6.Five logics of news on fake news
    • 6.1A logic of anticipation
    • 6.2A logic of exteriorisation
    • 6.3A logic of technologisation
    • 6.4A logic of securitisation
    • 6.5A logic of pre-legitimation
  • 7.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Bibliography
Published online: 17 October 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.22020.far
References (75)
Bibliography
Aagaard, Thomas. 2019. “Facebook til kamp mod udenlandsk indblanding i EP-valget [Facebook to Combat Foreign Interference in the EP Elections].” Berlingske, May 7, 2019. [URL]
Ahrens, Kevin. 2018. “Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste: Rusland vil forsøge at påvirke dansk valg [The Danish Defence Intelligence Agency: Russia Will Attempt to Influence the Danish Election]” Dr.Dk, December 4, 2018. [URL]
Ankerhus, Christina, and Sarah Friis Elkjær. 2019. “Fire Unge Og Én Ekspert Råder: Sådan Undgår Du at Fake News Påvirker Dig Til Valget [Four Young People and an Expert Offer Advice: This is How You Avoid Getting Influenced by Fake News During the Elections].” Dr.Dk, March 10, 2019. [URL]
Bjerager, Erik. 2019. “Alle sager har flere sider [All Cases Have Multiple Angles].” Kristeligt Dagblad, April 4, 2019. [URL]
Blach-Ørsten, Mark, Jannie Møller Hartley, and Maria Bendix Wittchen. 2018. “A Matter of Trust: Plagiarism, Fake Sources and Paradigm Repair in the Danish News Media.” Journalism Studies 19 (3): 1889–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boffey, Daniel. 2018. “European Elections ‘Face Growing Threat of Manipulation.’” The Guardian, October 23, 2018. [URL]
Boier, Peter. 2018. “Millioner på vej til PET: Skal bekæmpe ‘fake News’ i Danmark [Millions Will Go to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service: Has to Fight ‘Fake News’ in Denmark”].” Dr.Dk, September 4, 2018.Google Scholar
Bostrup, Jens. 2019. “Partier vil opføre sig pænt i valgkampen [Parties Will Behave Nicely in the Election Campaign].” Politiken, February 8, 2019.Google Scholar
Bratich, Jack. 2020. “Civil Society Must Be Defended: Misinformation, Moral Panics, and Wars of Restoration.” Communication, Culture & Critique 13 (3): 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brattberg, Erik. 2019. “The EU’s Looming Test on Election Interference.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 18, 2019. [URL]
Breinstrup, Thomas. 2018. “Gør klar til angreb fra kunstig Intelligens, freelancerobotter og danske fake news-millionærer [Get Ready for Attacks from Artificial Intelligence, Freelance Robots and Danish Fake News Millionaires]” Berlingske, December 26, 2018. [URL]
Bro, Karen. 2019. “Medierne vandt valget [The Media Won the Election].” Ekstra Bladet, June 8, 2019. [URL]
Brüggemann, Michael, Sven Engesser, Florin Büchel, Edda Humprecht, and Laia Castro. 2014. “Hallin and Mancini Revisited: Four Empirical Types of Western Media Systems.” Journal of Communication 64 (6): 1037–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carlson, Matt. 2020. “Fake News as an Informational Moral Panic: The Symbolic Deviancy of Social Media during the 2016 US Presidential Election Election.” Information, Communication & Society 23 (3): 374–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
D’Angelo, Paul, Florin Büchel, and Frank Esser. 2014. “Mediatization of Campaign Coverage: Metacoverage of US Elections.” In Mediatization of Politics: Understanding the Transformation of Western Democracies, edited by Frank Esser and Jesper Strömbäck, 156–80. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Danish Defence Intelligence Service. 2018. “Efterretningsmæssig risikovurdering 2018: En aktuel vurdering af forhold i udlandet af betydning for Danmarks sikkerhed [Intelligence Risk Assessment 2018: A Contemporary Assessment of Foreign Affairs with Significance for Danish Security].” [URL]
*Dengsøe, Ida, and Simon Festersen. 2019. “Facebook før Folketingsvalget: »Vi prøver at forberede os på det værste« [Facebook Before the General Election: »We Try to Prepare for the Worst«].” Jyllands-Posten, March 6, 2019.Google Scholar
Dyrby, Michael. 2019. “Det vigtigste valg i 46 år [The Most Important Election in 46 Years].” BT, May 8, 2019.Google Scholar
Eberle, Jakub, and Jan Daniel. 2019. “‘Putin, You Suck’: Affective Sticking Points in the Czech Narrative on ‘Russian Hybrid Warfare.’” Political Psychology 40 (6): 1267–81. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Egelhofer, Jana Laura, Loes Aaldering, Jakob-moritz Eberl, Sebastian Galyga, and Sophie Lecheler. 2020. “From Novelty to Normalization? How Journalists Use the Term ‘Fake News’ in Their Reporting.” Journalism Studies 21 (10): 1323–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Egelhofer, Jana Laura, and Sophie Lecheler. 2019. “Fake News as a Two-Dimensional Phenomenon: A Framework and Research Agenda.” Annals of the International Communication Association 43 (2): 97–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
European Commission. 2019. “Joint Communication To The European Parliament, The European Council, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions.” [URL]
Farkas, Johan, and Christina Neumayer. 2020. “Mimicking News: How the Credibility of an Established Tabloid Is Used When Disseminating Racism.” Nordicom Review 41 (1): 1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Farkas, Johan, and Jannick Schou. 2018. “Fake News as a Floating Signifier: Hegemony, Antagonism and the Politics of Falsehood.” Javnost – The Public 25 (3). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2019. Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy: Mapping the Politics of Falsehood. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2020. “Post-Truth Discourses and Their Limits: A Democratic Crisis ?” In Disinformation and Digital Media as a Challenge for Democracy, edited by E. Kużelewska, G. Terzis, D. Trottier, and D. Kloza, 103–26. Cambridge: Intersentia. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fejerskov, Johan Moe. 2019. “Den ultimative guide til fake news: Skurkene, skandalerne og alt andet, du skal vide for ikke at blive snydt i valgåret 2019 [The Ultimate Guide to Fake News: The Villains, Scandals, and Everything Else you Need to Know to Avoid being Deceived in the Election Year 2019].” Politiken, January 5, 2019. [URL]
Foy, Henry, Madhumita Murgia, and Michael Peel. 2019. “EU Scrambles to Stop Russian Interference Ahead of May Elections.” Financial Times, February 28, 2019.Google Scholar
Franck, Nicolai. 2018. “Skandaleår for Facebook: Men danskerne liker stadig på livet løs [Scandalous Year for Facebook: But Danes still ’Like’ Like Never Before].” Dr.Dk, December 26, 2018. [URL]
Freelon, Deen, and Chris Wells. 2020. “Disinformation as Political Communication.” Political Communication 37 (2): 145–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geist, Anton. 2019. “Løkke advarede mod fake news, Men hvis nogen har spredt misinformation, er det ham selv og Venstre [Løkke Warned About Fake News: But if Anyone Has Spread Misinformation, it is Him and The Liberal Party].” Information, May 7, 2019. [URL]
Glynos, Jason, and David Howarth. 2007. Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Glynos, Jason, David Howarth, Ryan Flitcroft, Craig Love, Konstantinos Roussos, and Jimena Vazquez. 2021. “Logics, Discourse Theory and Methods.” Journal of Language and Politics 20 (1): 62–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Google Trends. 2022. “Google Trends – ‘Fake News’, Denmark.” Google Trends. 2022. [URL]
Hansen, Michael. 2019. “Valg på TV 2: Tættere på vælgernes møde med politikerne [Elections on TV 2: Closer to the Voters’ Encounter with Politicians].” TV2, May 7, 2019. [URL]
Hertz, Mikkel. 2019. “Sådan dækker vi valget: TV 2 har et særligt ansvar [This is How We Cover the Elections: TV 2 Has a Special Responsibility].” TV2, May 7, 2019. [URL]
Howarth, David. 2015. Ernesto Laclau: Post-Marxism, Populism and Critique. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jarlner, Michael. 2019. “Sådan bliver 2019: Donald skaber ny ballade. Gud er færdig. Briterne kapper linen til EU og al fornuft. Og så går det galt med økonomien [This is How 2019 Will Be: Donald Creates new Trouble. God is Done. The Brits Cut the Cord to the EU and to Reason. And Then the Economy is in Trouble].” Politiken, January 1, 2019. [URL]
Jensen, Christian. 2019a. “54.000 nye læsere har fulgt valgkampen på Politiken – Nu begynder det politiske drama for alvor [54 000 new Readers Have Followed the Election Campaign Through Politiken – Now Starts the Real Political Drama].” Politiken, June 7, 2019.Google Scholar
. 2019b. “Fri og fuld digital adgang til Politiken under valgkampen [Free and Full Digital Access to Politiken During the Election Campaign].” Politiken, August 5, 2019.Google Scholar
Karkov, Rasmus. 2019. “PET-Chef advarer mod russisk misinformation i dansk valgkamp [Head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service Warns about Russian Misinformation in Danish Election Campaign].” Berlingske, January. [URL]
Kalsnes, B., K. Falasca, and A. Kammer. 2021. “Scandinavian Political Journalism in a Time of Fake News and Disinformation.” In Power, Communication, and Politics in the Nordic Countries, edited by E. Skogerbø, Ø. Ihlen, N. N. Kristensen, and & L. Nord, 283–304. Gothenburg: Nordicom.Google Scholar
Kamph, Peter H. 2019. “Valg på TV 2: Troværdighed og transparens i højsædet [Elections on TV 2: Credibility and Transparency at the Forefront].” Tv2.Dk, May 9, 2019.Google Scholar
KMD. 2019. “Halvdelen af vælgerne frygter fake news i forbindelse med folketingsvalget [Half of Voters Fear Fake News in Relation to the General Election].” Kmd.Dk, May 3, 2019.Google Scholar
Kongstad, Jesper. 2019. “Cybertruslen vokser: Ny teknologi øger risikoen for ødelæggende hackerangreb [The Cyber Threat is Growing: New Technology Increases the Risk of Destructive Hacker Attacks].” Jyllands-Posten, March 26, 2019.Google Scholar
Kretz, Steffen. 2019. “Tidligere FBI-agent: Sådan kan Danmark bekæmpe falske nyheder [Former FBI Agent: This is How Denmark Can Fight Fake News].” Dr.Dk, January 14, 2019. [URL]
Krzyżanowski, Michał. 2014. “Values, Imaginaries and Templates of Journalistic Practice: A Critical Discourse Analysis.” Social Semiotics 24 (3): 345–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2019. “Brexit and the Imaginary of ‘Crisis’: A Discourse-Conceptual Analysis of European News Media.” Critical Discourse Studies 16 (4): 465–90. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto. 2005. On Populist Reason. London: Verso Books.Google Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto, and Chantal Mouffe. 2014. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Larsen, Thomas. 2019. “Analyse: Claus Hjorts frygt for Paludan varsler valgkamp uden sidestykke i nyere historie [Analysis: Claus Hjort’s Fear of Paludan Signals an Election Campaign Like Nothing We Have Seen in Recent History].” Berlingske, May 4, 2019. [URL]
Lim, Gabrielle. 2020. “Securitize / Counter – Securitize: The Life and Death of Malaysia’s Anti-Fake News Act.” New York. [URL]
Lischka, Juliane A. 2021. “Fighting an Indestructible Monster: Journalism’s Legitimacy Narratives during the Trump Era.” Journal of Language and Politics 20 (5): 803–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Madsen, Kristian. 2019. “Det ømme punkt: Tre tal, der kan få dansk politik til at eksplodere [The Soft Spot: Three Figures that Could Make Danish Politics Explode].” Politiken, June 19, 2019. [URL]
Mollerup, Jacob. 2019. “Selvgode medier [Self-Righteous Media].” Politiken, April 4, 2019.Google Scholar
Monsees, Linda. 2020. “‘A War against Truth’ – Understanding the Fake News Controversy.” Critical Studies on Security. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2021. “Information Disorder, Fake News and the Future of Democracy.” Globalizations. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Newman, Nic, Richard Fletcher, Anne Schulz, Simge Andı, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2020. “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020.” [URL]
Nielsen, Jens Beck, and Simon Andersen. 2019. “Hjort slog alarm – Men Forsvaret har ikke fundet ét eneste eksempel på russisk påvirkning af valget [Hjort Sounded the Alarm – But the Military has Not Found a Single Example of Russian Interference in the Elections].” Berlingske, June 5, 2019. [URL]
Nordvang Jensen, Christina, and Mads Korsager Nielsen. 2019. “Efterretningstjeneste i Ny Trusselsvurdering: Køleskabe På Internettet Er Ny Lækkerbisken for Hackere [Intelligence Agency in New Threat Assessment: Fridges Connected to the Internet Are a New Treat for Hackers].” Dr.Dk, March 25, 2019.Google Scholar
Olsen, Theis Lange. 2019. “Forfatter efterlyser daglig ‘temperaturmåling’ på fake news [Author Requests Daily ’Temperature Measurements’ on Fake News].” Dr.Dk, April 2, 2019.Google Scholar
Østergaard, Mette, and Tom Jensen. 2019. “Berlingske skyder valgdækningen i gang. Fordin skyld [Berlingske Launches its Election Coverage. For Your Sake].” Berlingske, March 17, 2019.Google Scholar
Ritzau. 2019. “Fælles Front Mod Fake News [United Front against Fake News].” B.T., January 4, 2019. [URL]
Rasmussen, Rasmus Kjærgaard. 2019. “Trussel: ‘Deep Fakes’ vil påvirke sikkerhedspolitik [Threat: Deepfakes will Affect Security Policy].” Politiken, March 30, 2019.Google Scholar
Rossini, Patrícia, Jennifer Stromer-Galley, and Ania Korsunska. 2021. “More than ‘Fake News’? The Media as a Malicious Gatekeeper and a Bullyin the Discourse of Candidates in the 2020 U.S.Presidential Election.” Journal of Language and Politics 20 (5): 676–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Santos Rasmussen, Christiern. 2019. “Bild jer ikke ind at Danmark ikke kan blive ramt af russiske påvirkningskampagner [Do Not be Under the Illusion that Denmark Could Not be Hit by Russian Influence Campaigns].” May 9, 2019. [URL]
Sjöberg, Alexander, and Johan Moe Fejerskov. 2019. “Vi kommer aldrig til at udrydde alle fake news [We Will Never Eradicate all Fake News].” Politiken, May 2, 2019.Google Scholar
Splidsboel Hansen, Flemming. 2019. “Den digitale trussel Fra Rusland vokser [The Digital Threat from Russia is Growing].” Berlingske, January 6, 2019. [URL]
Svendsen, Jacob. 2018. “FE: Rusland Ventes at Påvirke Folketingsvalget [The Danish Defence Intelligence Agency: Russia is Expected to Influence the General Elections].” Politiken, December 5, 2018. [URL]
Tandoc, Edson C., Joy Jenkins, and Stephanie Craft. 2019. “Fake News as a Critical Incident in Journalism.” Journalism Practice 13 (6): 673–89. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tenove, Chris. 2020. “Protecting Democracy from Disinformation: Normative Threats and Policy Responses.” The International Journal of Press/Politics 25 (3): 517–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tolstrup Holm, Line. 2019. “Lennart ville lave en alternativ avis, men hans medie er i krise – og det er godt nyt for demokratiet [Lennart Wanted to Make an Alternative Newspaper, but his Outlet is in Crisis – and That is Good News for Democracy].” Berlingske, March 31, 2019. [URL]
Waisbord, Silvio. 2018. “Truth Is What Happens to News: On Journalism, Fake News, and Post-Truth.” Journalism Studies 19 (13): 1866–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wasserman, Herman. 2020. “Fake News from Africa: Panics, Politics and Paradigms.” Journalism 21 (1): 3–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wright, Scott. 2021. “Discourses of Fake News.” Journal of Language and Politics 20 (5): 641–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Farkas, Johan & Sabina Schousboe
2024. Facts, values, and the epistemic authority of journalism: How journalists use and define the terms fake news, junk news, misinformation, and disinformation. Nordicom Review 45:1 ► pp. 137 ff. DOI logo
Thorson, Emily
2024. How News Coverage of Misinformation Shapes Perceptions and Trust, DOI logo
Venizelos, Giorgos
2024. (Anti-)Populism and Post-truth. In Post-Truth Populism [Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology, ], ► pp. 91 ff. DOI logo
Farkas, Johan
2023. Fake News in Metajournalistic Discourse. Journalism Studies 24:4 ► pp. 423 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 january 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.