Mosca, L., & Paxton, F. (2026). Fake news as a rhetorical weapon: Strategic delegitimization and selective amplification in Italian newspapers. European Journal of Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02673231261458935
Summary
This article reconceptualizes the phrase “fake news” not as a neutral descriptor of misinformation but as a rhetorical weapon wielded in political conflict. Mosca and Paxton propose the Strategic Delegitimization and Selective Amplification (SDSA) model, which captures a dual dynamic: political actors deploy fake news accusations to delegitimize opponents as part of negative campaigning, while media outlets unevenly amplify these accusations according to their political alignment or strategic interest. The study situates this argument empirically in the Italian newspaper context, positioning itself against dominant approaches that frame fake news primarily as an epistemic or information-quality problem.
Key Contributions
- Introduces the SDSA model as a new conceptual tool for analyzing fake news accusations.
- Shifts the scholarly framing of “fake news” from a misinformation problem toward a strategic communicative practice.
- Bridges research on negative campaigning, political delegitimization, and media amplification.
- Applies the framework to the Italian media–political system as an empirical case.
Methods
- Development of the novel SDSA theoretical framework.
- Empirical analysis grounded in Italian newspapers (specific methodological detail not available from the abstract).
Findings
- Detailed findings are not specified in the available abstract excerpt.
- The paper’s core argument is for the analytic value of viewing fake news accusations through the SDSA lens, demonstrating how strategic delegitimization by politicians combines with selective amplification by the press in the Italian context.
Connections
This paper’s reframing of “fake news” as a strategic label rather than a descriptive claim resonates with work treating the discourse around disinformation as itself a political and rhetorical construct, such as Farkas2026-lr. Its concern with how outlets differentially amplify partisan claims connects to research on media and information environments like Hameleers2026-mc and Humprecht2025-ml. Given its Italian media-mapping setting, it also sits alongside other Italian-context studies in this topic such as Ducci2022-10cb5d70 and Iannelli2015-e0818c3e.
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