This thesis presents a qualitative study of fake news disseminated in Poland as a result of the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022. It aims to contribute to the public knowledge about the most prominent themes of the Polish fake news and the topics prone to be used as disinformation and as a weapon of war in a conflict setting. Through the use of framing theory, this research explains how the conflict in Ukraine has been framed within the Polish fake news. To understand the tactics of the fake news spreaders, culture links and culture pegs used to attract the Polish audience have been identified. The study was conducted using content analysis and coding of 125 fake news items sourced from six fact-checking organisations in Poland. The findings revealed 6 main themes: socioeconomic, war reporting, politics, commentary, conspiracy theory and ideology. The framing of the conflict has been identified as presenting Ukrainian refugees in Poland as economic migrants, the alleged ‘Ukrainisation’ of Poland, and a narration that the war is a lie. Theoretical approach of interpreting fake news as a weapon of war revealed the pro-Russian narrative in the majority of the fake news in Poland within the analysed timeframe. The study concludes by addressing the need for a continuous research of the topic of fake news to alert the public on the tactics of the fake news spreaders and characteristics of fake news in the Polish infosphere.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-55044 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Thompson, Sara |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Institutionen för konst, kultur och kommunikation (K3) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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